‘All my life people have told me to lose my Muslimness’ – politicians on their battle with Islamophobia

Naz Shah: ‘The abuse spikes whenever there’s a terrorist attack, or a grooming gang conviction.’ Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

In 2011, Sayeeda Warsi, then a co-chair of the Conservative party, implored her government to take action over the rising tide of anti-Muslim bigotry, which she said had become socially acceptable enough to pass “the dinner-table test”.

A decade later, it seems too little has changed. Last week, Nusrat Ghani, the Tory MP for Wealden, told the Sunday Times that when she was dismissed from her ministerial post in 2020, she was told by a whip that her “Muslimness” had been an issue. The chief whip, Mark Spencer, identified himself as the person who spoke to her, but strongly denied her allegations.