Turmoil within the Conservative party is behind delays in implementing plans to tackle Islamophobia and other forms of discrimination within its ranks, an independent reviewer has said.
Two years since the publication of his report on Islamophobia among Tories, Prof Swaran Singh said it had taken “for ever” for officials to focus on the recommendations, with the biggest problem being tackling issues at a local level.
Singh said the number of Conservative leaders and chairs over the two-year period – three and seven respectively – had an impact on the party’s ability to fulfil the recommendations.
His original report, which found that claims of “institutional racism” were not borne out by evidence, was condemned in 2021 as a whitewash by Muslim Tories despite it including criticism of the language used by Boris Johnson and the mayoral campaign run by Zac Goldsmith for insensitivity.
Key findings from a review published on Monday included Singh’s observation that the party has no formal measures in place to handle complaints relating to discriminatory behaviour involving its most senior members.
It added that some senior members told the review that mechanisms already existed to create an independent panel to investigate complaints against the most senior figures but this appeared to be “ad hoc” and there was an absence of any documented formal procedure to reflect this.
The review also found there had been 212 complaints relating to 137 incidents in the three months up to June 2022. Five complaints were categorised as bullying or intimidation, three cited sexual assault, two referred to criminal activity and one was about a member writing on an “alt-right” website.
One case singled out for further investigation in the review was that of a complainant who was further distressed by no sanction being completed after nearly a year from the judgment – and the offending continued “undeterred”.
“No apology has been offered to the complainant, or demanded of the respondents, despite the panel imposing other sanctions,” said the review.
Churn at the top of the Tories was said to have had an “unavoidable impact on the day-to-day running” of the party, Singh said, adding: “It just took forever for them to focus on this.”
In a statement released as part of the review, he said: “We were happy to see that, after having fully accepted the recommendations of our investigation, the party has made real progress in implementing them.”
“However, there remains a gap between the good intentions of the party leadership and lasting change at grassroots level, and a number of important areas still need to be addressed.”
“While any such programme of change will inevitably take time, we urge the party to redouble its efforts as it strives to become a fully inclusive organisation.”
In other findings, the review said that awareness of and engagement in updated party policies and training was “mixed” at a local level.
The party had also produced a large amount of documentation in response to the recommendations, it added, “but this has not necessarily led to a corresponding change in awareness or action on the ground”.
Training compliance among party volunteers also remained low, and there was a feeling that expectations of volunteers on the part of Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) were increasing, but that local officers were not always offered the support they needed.
The Conservative party’s chairman, Greg Hands, said he was extremely grateful for the work on the review, which he said would help the party to “further improve” how it dealt with complaints.
He said: “The party has made significant progress on Professor Singh’s recommendations with 25 complete and just six ongoing. There is however still work to be done and this is a process of continual improvement.”
Among recommendations that they wanted to see within six months, Singh and his team said that the party should review and improve how it communicated with complainants and respondents and review whether complaints against members at the most senior level in the party should be handled by an independent body.
