Tory Islamophobia split: Johnson whitewashes, Hancock whitesplains and gaslights
Matt Hancock: After his blunder over GP numbers, I wrote: “Fanfare the falsehood, then quietly retract it later. Is that the plan?” Strangely enough, it’s possible that those words apply here too.
What a shame for the Tories that the naked Islamophobia in their party has reared up in the run-up to the general election!
And after all the work flogging the dead cat of Labour anti-Semitism by their friends in the mainstream media too.
First, Boris Johnson said there would be no inquiry into Tory Islamophobia before Christmas (note the tasteless use of a Christian festival there), in what seems clearly an attempt to whitewash racism out of his party’s election campaign.
Then Baroness Warsi – who has campaigned to expose Islamophobia in the Conservatives for years – tweeted her response:
2/2 Today #BorisJohnson has confirmed that there will NOT be an inquiry into #Islamophobia
Yes disappointing
Yes predictable
Yes it’s true my party don’t give a —— about racism within our own ranks
We are only anti racist to score political points
Do as we say not as we do 🤦🏽♀️— Sayeeda Warsi (@SayeedaWarsi) November 8, 2019
And then health secretary Matt Hancock – who has already lied about the number of GPs coming into the NHS – “whitesplained” away the possibility of such racism in the Tory Party.
Responding to Baroness Warsi, he said: “Well look, I like Sayeeda. She has a particular view on this, there are others who take a more balanced approach.”
Asked if he was saying she was “unbalanced”, Hancock replied: “No, I’m certainly not saying that. I have an enormous amount of respect for Sayeeda but she does take a particular view.”
Way to make things worse, Matty-boy!
Oh @MattHancock
Thank you for “whitesplaining” this to me.
I’m so glad I have colleagues like you who can educate me even after my 30 years of experience of work in Race relations
“”Thousand apologies sir “ 🙄🤦🏽♀️ https://t.co/7TtX34PHT8— Sayeeda Warsi (@SayeedaWarsi) November 9, 2019
Zelo Street‘s Tim Fenton was similarly nonplussed: “Bloody hell, I never heard being soft on racism called “more balanced” before.”
And he had more to say about the interview than The Independent, which omitted the fact that, as Mr Fenton puts it, Mr Hancock put his other foot in his mouth too:
“‘There needs to be an inquiry of course, but of course you should look into all kinds of prejudice … I think that this is something that any responsible party always needs to be on the look-out for.‘ Yes, he did indeed choose to keep his mouth open while inserting the other foot. The double standards are blatant.
“Just imagine what the response would have been if that had been a senior Labour figure and anti-Semitism allegations.”
He also quoted Labour’s Afzal Khan: “This gaslighting of Baroness Warsi’s experience and expertise within the Tory Party is a clear example of that racism in action.”
Still, BoJob has committed to an inquiry into all kinds of prejudice in the Tory Party… at some indeterminate point in the future.
So I’ll leave you with these words, again from the Zelo Street article:
“As all kinds of prejudice will be considered, perhaps Bozo would like to include Jacob Rees Mogg’s use of the anti-Semitic “Illuminati” and “Soros” dog whistles, Michael “Oiky” Gove conflating “Jews” and “Israel”, Priti Patel talking of a “North London metropolitan liberal elite”, and Jake Berry shouting “Britain First” at Jeremy Corbyn in the Commons.”
So much prejudice among just a few Conservative ministers! Who knows what sickness the others are hiding?
Source: Tory Islamophobia row: Warsi accuses Hancock of ‘whitesplaining’ | News | The Guardian
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