Tories accused of 'failing to act' after ex-campaign manager posts Islamophobic conspiracy theory in response to New Zealand attack
Theodora Dickinson posts a video that she claims is a church in Pakistan being burned down after the Christchurch shooting - but is actually from six years ago in Egypt
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Your support makes all the difference.The Conservative party has been accused of “failing to take action” against a former campaign manager who posted an Islamophobic conspiracy theory video on her Twitter account after the New Zealand attack.
After 50 people were killed at two mosques in the city of Christchurch, Theodara Dickinson claimed to her 17,000 followers that Islamists in Pakistan had burned down a church in retaliation.
Alongside the tweet was a supposed clip of the incident and she also asked why BBC News had not covered the story.
However, the video was actually recorded in Egypt in 2014 and bore no relation to the atrocity in New Zealand.
Ms Dickinson claims to have run local and general election campaigns for the Conservative Party.
The tweets and other relevant information was handed to the party by The Independent who said they would “investigate the matter” but denied she was a paid member of staff.
A party spokesperson told The Independent: “We are investigating this matter”.
However, no action appears to have been taken and the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) called the lack of action “outrageous”.
The organisation has repeatedly called for an independent inquiry into what it believes is Islamophobia within the Conservative Party, said it was time to “recognise the scale of the issue”.
“It is outrageous that the Party has failed to take action against a person who shares fake news about Muslims, in particular given it was in the context of the massacre of 50 Muslims in Christchurch,” an MCB spokesperson told The Independent.
“Such misinformation risks having dangerous consequences for Muslim communities.”
Former chair of the Conservative Party, Baroness Warsi, said she contacted the current chair, Brandon Lewis about the incident but received no reply.
She has repeatedly described the party as being “institutionally Islamophobic” and has echoed calls for an independent inquiry.
The Independent has contacted Ms Dickinson for a comment.
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