Nusrat Ghani says her religion was cited as a cause for why she was dismissed from Boris Johnson’s administration in 2020.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has ordered an inquiry into claims by a Muslim former minister that she was sacked from his authorities due to her religion, his spokesperson mentioned.
The claims by Nusrat Ghani, a former junior transport minister, have stoked contemporary controversy for Downing Avenue as Johnson awaits the findings of a unique inquiry into “partygate” revelations.
“The prime minister has requested the Cupboard Workplace to conduct an inquiry into the allegations made by Nusrat Ghani MP,” the prime minister’s spokesperson mentioned on Monday.
Johnson had initially urged Ghani to file a proper criticism by means of the Conservative social gathering. However she declined, arguing that the allegation centred on authorities slightly than social gathering work.
“The prime minister has now requested officers to determine the information about what occurred,” the spokesperson mentioned, including that Johnson “takes these claims very critically”.
Ghani welcomed the brand new probe, which was introduced after she held talks with Johnson on Sunday night.
“As I mentioned to the prime minister final night time, all I need is for this to be taken critically and for him to analyze,” she tweeted.
The inquiry should look into what she was instructed each by Downing Avenue aides and by a Conservative whip in Parliament, the Tory MP added.
Ghani, 49, was sacked as a transport minister in 2020, and instructed the Sunday Occasions {that a} whip mentioned her “Muslimness was raised as a problem” at one assembly in Downing Avenue.
She was additionally instructed her “Muslim girl minister standing was making colleagues really feel uncomfortable”, she claimed.
Chief whip Mark Spencer, whose function is to maintain MPs on board with the federal government’s agenda, took the bizarre step of figuring out himself because the individual on the centre of the claims, and strongly denied the allegations.
The federal government whips have been already within the highlight after they have been accused by one other Conservative MP of “blackmailing” backbench critics of Johnson over the partygate affair.
A number of Conservatives have known as for the prime minister to stop after revelations that his employees had held frequent events in Downing Avenue throughout COVID-19 lockdowns.
Johnson attended at the very least one of many gatherings, however denies breaking the legislation, and has commissioned senior civil servant Sue Grey to analyze.
Grey’s report may come out this week, in keeping with experiences.
In a newspaper column in 2018, Johnson sparked widespread criticism by writing that Muslim girls sporting the burqa regarded like “letter packing containers” and a “financial institution robber”.