Claims of Islamophobia spell another crisis for the government

Editorial: Whatever Sue Gray’s report now does or doesn’t say, the chaos that has been unleashed in the meantime may well prove to have been dangerous enough all on its own

(Brian Adcock)

It is not only the country that has become bored and irritated by being made to wait for the already notorious yet still unpublished Sue Gray report. The Conservative Party has filled the void by ripping itself apart, to the extent that it may be too late for Boris Johnson, whatever is in the report.

When the Bury South MP Christian Wakeford defected to Labour 15 minutes before Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, the timing was intended to do the prime minister maximum damage. Instead, it appeared to bring him a temporary stay of execution. Even the many Conservatives who want rid of Mr Johnson immediately do not wish to do so in a way that hands the opposition any more advantage than is necessary.

But as the waiting goes on, the damage has become far worse. Former junior minister Nusrat Ghani has publicly claimed that she was sacked because she was Muslim, claiming she was told by the whips’ office that her “Muslimness” had become a problem for her colleagues.

That is an extremely serious allegation, so much so that the chief whip, Mark Spencer, has taken the highly unusual step of publicly acknowledging that the allegations refer to him, while simultaneously denying them, and accusing one of his own MPs of defamation.

Mr Spencer is a member of the cabinet, as is Nadim Zahawi, who has called for the allegations to be investigated. Mr Johnson has also had to issue a statement, via the Downing Street press office, that he had been made aware of the allegations in 2020, but that Ms Ghani chose not to pursue them further, all of which has only drawn more attention to his notorious newspaper column, containing disgraceful jokes about Muslim women looking like bank robbers and letter boxes.

All of this amounts to yet another appalling mess. The prime minister is far deeper in the mire than he likely ever foresaw, and the evidence that he is out of his depth is mounting. To commission an investigation is a time-honoured stalling tactic, but this one has not played out in the fashion he might have hoped.

When politicians commission investigations or inquiries, they tend to hide behind them while they are in progress, and then when they are out, they move directly into the next phase, which is that it is “time to move on”.

This may have been Mr Johnson’s plan, but it isn’t working. First of all, the person he first asked to investigate was the cabinet secretary Simon Case, who then had to recuse himself when it was discovered there’d been a party in his own office.

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Now it seems that Ms Gray is investigating matters that could cause Mr Johnson mortal damage, particularly, as is now reported, allegations of parties, or at least frequent visits from friends, within his own private Downing Street flat. We also hear that Martin Reynolds, his principal private secretary and sender of the “bring your own booze” email, may have “turned”.

For a while, the talk has been that Ms Gray’s report will be crucial in making up the minds of many backbench MPs who are wavering about whether or not to send in their letters of no confidence. But whatever that report now does or doesn’t say, the chaos that has been unleashed in the meantime may well prove to have been dangerous enough all on its own.

It may still be possible for the prime minister to tough his way through a crisis that is only getting larger, but it is hard to imagine how he can reassert any kind of meaningful control over a political party that is not so much in a state of civil war as straightforward anarchy.

And for those who have already decided Mr Johnson must go, but have not yet decided on the best moment for it, well, they can surely see that things simply cannot carry on this way. The need for action has become urgent.