Good morning. Your 7am Lee Anderson update: still not apologised. The reason, he said yesterday, is that “when you think you are right you should never apologise, because to do so would be a sign of weakness”.
Others might feel that the weaknesses of Anderson’s position are apparent enough already. In any case, the Conservatives remain in crisis over his claims that Islamists had “got control” of Sadiq Khan, and their tepid response since he was suspended.
Again yesterday, Rishi Sunak avoided using the word “Islamophobic” to describe the former Tory deputy chair’s comments – and Suella Braverman claimed the reaction to his comments was “hysteria in response to those calling out the crisis”. She probably won’t be using the word Islamophobic, either.
So is that the right term for Anderson’s comments – and does the Tory party have a wider problem? For today’s newsletter, I spoke to Sajjad Karim, a former Conservative MEP who chaired the European parliament’s working group on Islamophobia, and has a deeper insight than most into the party’s handling of the question. Here are the headlines.
Five big stories
Budget | Jeremy Hunt’s financial planning is “dubious” and “lacks credibility” and the chancellor should not announce tax cuts in next week’s budget if he cannot lay out how he will fund them, an economic thinktank has said. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) calculates that a spending freeze to fund pre-election giveaways would mean about £35bn in public service cuts.
Israel-Gaza war | Joe Biden has said he believes a new, temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is possible by next Monday. The US president offered the update spontaneously during a visit to New York yesterday, in response to reporters inquiring about when he expected a ceasefire could start.
Russia | Alexei Navalny’s allies allege that Vladimir Putin had the opposition leader killed in jail to sabotage a prisoner swap in which Navalny would have been exchanged for a convicted hitman jailed in Germany. Maria Pevchikh, a close ally of the opposition leader, said Navalny was only days from being freed.
US news | An active-duty member of the US air force has died after setting himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington DC, while shouting “Free Palestine””. 25-year-old airman Aaron Bushnell said on a livestream that he would “no longer be complicit in genocide”.”
Education | Labour has said it will help schools to train young male influencers who can counter the negative impact of people like Andrew Tate, a self-declared misogynist influencer, if it wins the next election. The party announced plans to pupils how to question the material they see on social media from people like Tate.
In depth: ‘You cannot give the green light to Islamophobia and not expect a rise in other forms of discrimination’
Lee Anderson has form. His comments are therefore not especially surprising: Anderson, pictured above with Sunak, has been enabled by an ecosystem in the Conservative party and parts of the media that reward him richly for every new transgression. (I wrote a comment piece about that particular aspect of this miserable stew yesterday.)
But the problems within the Conservative party have much deeper roots than the man who was a Labour member until 2018, and has only been an MP since 2019. “It’s not something that has started recently,” said Sajjad Karim, an MEP for North West England from 2004 to 2019. “I can go back to about 2012 or 2013 when I first started to detect some of this type of talk. But the party really has to get a grip of it now.”
Here’s how the Conservatives got here.
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2010s: party ‘infiltration’
In 2013, Karim says he overheard two Tory parliamentarians, one of whom went on to be a minister, having an Islamophobic conversation about him. Then things got worse. “After Nigel Farage won the European elections in 2014, it felt like there was an infiltration of many local Conservative associations by people from Ukip,” he said. “These new members brought some very outdated thinking, and they were extremely vociferous. They took positions of real power, and some became chairs, and even candidates.”
There were many documented incidents of Islamophobia among Tory councillors and candidates over the next few years. Did he feel he was subject to Islamophobic treatment himself? That’s a complicated question. In his regular meetings with local associations, “I felt that I would try to explain something, and I would be shouted down by people in the audience and not allowed to speak, because I was not repeating the easy narratives they had been given. I was pro-European, they were anti-European, so in some cases it was that. But in some of these new people that came in, one did pick up a sense that … ” He breaks off. “It’s very difficult to pick apart.”
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2021: ‘whitewash’ Islamophobia review
In 2019, Sajid Javid extracted a commitment from his fellow Conservative leadership candidates to hold an external investigation into Islamophobia in the party. By the time it started during Boris Johnson’s premiership, the terms of reference had expanded to include other forms of harassment – and many observers thought it was hopelessly hampered by a narrow focus on structures and processes, rather than the experiences of Muslims members. (Peter Oborne wrote an instructive comparison of the review with the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s investigation into Labour party antisemitism.)
The review, published in 2021, recognised that Islamophobia had been too easily denied or dismissed – but concluded there was no evidence of institutional racism in the party. That is despite a submission to the inquiry from Hope Not Hate showing that 47% of Tory members viewed Islam as “a threat to the British way of life”, and 58% believed there were “no-go areas in Britain where sharia law dominates and non-Muslims cannot enter”.
Karim was one of those who viewed the review’s findings as a whitewash. “Boris Johnson carried out a lot of gymnastics over how it was set up,” he said. “There was no requirement for Prof Singh to speak to Conservatives, including parliamentarians like me, who had experienced Islamophobia, and absolutely no requirement for any findings to reflect the level of concerns in the party.”
“The net result was that, by carrying it out in this way, it ended up sending a signal to the party membership that was basically, Muslims are fair game. There is a message that big parts of England will reward you electorally if you are seen as pushing for ‘what real people believe in’.”
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2024: claims of “Islamist” takeover
The incendiary claims by Lee Anderson, Suella Braverman (pictured below) and others that “Islamists” have taken control of the UK are, in part, a product of the charged political atmosphere since 7 October. But in considering those cases, we might also reflect on one of Singh’s findings in a progress review published last year, which said there were no formal measures in place to handle complaints over discriminatory behaviour involving senior figures.
“It has worsened since October 7,” said Karim. “You have to lay the blame at the doorstep of the people who hold very high office – the way Braverman painted members of our community was often extremely unfair.”
He despairs of the comments from some “red wall” backbenchers on Anderson’s suspension. “Seeing them absolutely furious about it – I do not recognise the picture they paint of northern working-class England,” he said. “It’s such lazy thinking. I know those communities, I grew up with them, and in general terms they are not racist.”
Seeing antisemitism “hitting the roof” has, meanwhile, underlined how inseparable the two issues are in practice. “Antisemitism is the canary in the coalmine – as soon as it’s rising, you have a huge problem. All of these issues are inseparable. You cannot be giving the green light to Islamophobia and not expect a rise in other forms of discrimination as well.”
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The government’s response
While Rishi Sunak and other Conservatives have accepted that Anderson’s comments were “wrong”, they have resisted the characterisation of them as Islamophobic. Labour has pointed out that the Tories have not adopted the definition of Islamophobia used by the other parties, “a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness”. Kemi Badenoch, the equalities minister, claimed yesterday that the term “creates a blasphemy law via the back door” and that the phrase “anti-Muslim hatred” was better.
Conservative peer Sayeeda Warsi was scathing about that argument on social media, pointing out that using the term “Islamophobia” within the party would create no risk of blasphemy prosecutions and adding that even using Badenoch’s preferred phrase, “ministers do not even engage”. (It’s worth noting that no senior Tory has used the phrase “anti-Muslim hatred” about Anderson’s comments, either.)
Karim, who spent three years at the European parliament campaigning for the EU to recognise Islamophobia as a concept before he finally succeeded in 2013, said that by refusing to adopt the widely used term, the government is “playing politics with the issue. At some point, they are going to have to accept that when you refuse to even recognise it as a concept, you allow it to go unchecked – and you gnaw away at the values that underpin our society.”
Meanwhile, the role of independent advisor on Islamophobia has been vacant since June 2022. Karim has little faith in Sunak to change course. “He has to make a choice now. What is the Conservative party going to be? A party of government that is unionist, one nation and outward looking, or is it going to go down this flag-waving English nationalist route – and become a minority voice speaking up for bigots?”
As for the politicians who he says made Islamophobic comments about him back in 2013: the party has never properly followed up on his offer to give details of who they are. “They are still in parliament. What more can I say?”
What else we’ve been reading
How, precisely, does a very rich man use his wealth to secure political influence? This extract from Tom Burgis’ new book provides some answers through the story of Conservative donor Mohamed Amersi (above), told in excruciating and revelatory detail. Archie
Felicity Hannah has owned rats as pets since she was 20 years old, but none left an impression quite like Letty, a rodent she found abandoned in a bin. Though Letty was unfriendly, Hannah says she will never forget her “bin rat”. Nimo
Hannah Nwoko shared photos of her young son on social media as a way to document her journey as a mother and chronicle her child’s milestones. But once she realised the dangers of overexposing her child on the internet, Nwoko tried to wipe the digital footprint she had inadvertently created for him. Nimo
Kudos to whoever had the idea of getting Peter Bradshaw to review some of the most notable Saltburn Tiktoks – some of which are now causing consternation to the owner of the house where the movie was filmed, and where cameraphone-wielding fans now show up in droves. Congrats to Horrified Reaction Video on getting a coveted five star rating. Archie
In 2020, Troy McAlister drove a stolen car through a red light in San Francisco, killing two people. Sam Levins finds out why this case has become one of the most politically consequential criminal matters in the city’s recent history. Nimo
Sport
Premier League | Everton has received a lift in its fight to avoid relegation after a record 10-point deduction for a breach of Premier League profit and sustainability rules was reduced to six points on appeal. The Merseyside club has risen two places to 15th in the table on 25 points, five clear of those in the relegation zone.
Premier League | A hat-trick from Jarrod Bowen (above) and a long-distance screamer from Emerson Palmieri gave West Ham a 4-2 win against Brentford at the London Stadium.
Cricket | After England lost the fourth test and the series to India despite threatening a remarkable comeback in Ranchi, Barney Ronay argues that a rational response to the outcome is being “lost in the fog of post-truth Baz-chat”. While England and Bazball have many flaws, he writes, “if the real question is: is this thing still good for Test cricket, then the answer must be yes, even in defeat.”
The front pages
“Experts warn Hunt over ‘dubious’ case for unfunded budget tax cuts” says the Guardian, while the i splashes on “Hunt has six days to find tax cuts to save Tory MPs”. “Get him back! Tories rally round ‘race row’ Lee Anderson” – that’s the Daily Express. The Times has “I’m proof that Britain isn’t racist, says Sunak”. “Army wives force MoD U-turn over housing” is the lead story in the Daily Telegraph, while the Financial Times goes with “Sweden clears last hurdle to join Nato as Putin’s war shifts alliance borders”. Top story in the Metro is “Cat sadist caged for killing a stranger”. “100 kids a day are victims of sick online blackmailers”, says the Daily Mirror, citing its own investigation.
Today in Focus
Saldo: Ukraine’s gangster governor – part 2
Russia’s invasion changed everything for Ukrainians – and for one man it presented an opportunity to reboot his political career and reclaim lost power. Tom Burgis reports from Kherson
Cartoon of the day | Ben Jennings
The Upside
A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
Music has been Graham McGregor-Smith’s true passion since he was a teenager, but that arty world seemed too far removed from him when he was growing up, so he focused on building a stable life. He went to university, became an accountant, got married and raised two children. But something profound and significant was still missing from his life. Once his children were at university, McGregor-Smith found the time to come back to music, he explains in the latest from the series A new start after 60.
He started small – writing songs at home with his keyboard. Then he joined the Songwriting Academy, which connects songwriters, artists and producers around the world. It was there that he met producer and songwriter Julian Hinton, who has worked with everyone from Rod Stewart to Seal to Stormzy. The pair started working together shortly after McGregor-Smith’s 60th birthday and they completed an album together in 2023. “The whole process was an absolute joy,” McGregor-Smith says. “I’m finally living a life of creativity. I’m so fortunate to be in this position.”
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