The Conservative Party’s claim that “all complaints are investigated without prejudice” has been labelled “misleading and dishonest” following the resignation of Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, who accused the party of veering towards the “far right.”
Baroness Warsi, Britain’s first Muslim cabinet minister under David Cameron, criticised the party for its “hypocrisy and double standards” in its treatment of various communities.
On September 26, she took to X (formerly Twitter) to announce her resignation from the party whip. “It is with a heavy heart that I have today informed my whip and decided for now to no longer take the Conservative whip. This is a sad day for me. I am a Conservative and remain so, but sadly the current party is far removed from the one I joined and served in Cabinet. My decision reflects how far right my party has moved and the hypocrisy and double standards in its treatment of different communities. A timely reminder of the issues I raise in my book *Muslims Don’t Matter*,” she wrote.
Warsi’s resignation came in the wake of an investigation launched by the Tories into comments she made about a court case involving a protester, Marieha Hussain, who was accused of displaying a placard using derogatory language about Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, and Home Secretary, Suella Braverman. The sign depicted them under a coconut tree, with the prosecution claiming it implied they were “brown on the outside but white on the inside.” Hussain was acquitted on September 13 of a racially aggravated public order offence.
Following the verdict, Warsi posted a picture of herself drinking from a coconut on X and congratulated Hussain. In response, a Conservative Party spokesperson stated: “Complaints were received regarding divisive language allegedly used by Baroness Sayeeda Warsi. Baroness Warsi was informed an investigation was about to begin earlier this week. We have a responsibility to ensure that all complaints are investigated without prejudice.”
However, the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) dismissed the party’s claim of impartiality, pointing to its longstanding failure to address Islamophobia within its ranks. The MCB noted that in 2020, it submitted a comprehensive dossier to the Equalities and Human Rights Commission detailing Islamophobic conduct by over 300 Conservative members, yet “the Party failed to act on the overwhelming evidence.”
The MCB also highlighted that in 2024, concerns were raised over Islamophobic remarks made by senior figures such as Suella Braverman and Lee Anderson, but the party again “refused to investigate.” They pointed out that even the party’s own Swaran Singh Investigation into discrimination found the complaints process to be “indifferent” or “abrasive,” and now, by investigating Warsi—a former cabinet minister who has been outspoken about Islamophobia—it has become “politicised.”
“This consistent negligence demonstrates the Conservative Party’s unwillingness to confront Islamophobia within its ranks and society at large. Baroness Warsi’s resignation from the whip should be a final call for accountability,” the MCB said.
Reacting to the investigation, Warsi expressed her frustration in another post on X: “A court of law found Marieha Hussain not guilty. Whatever Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman think of that decision, that is the rule of law, and they are not above it. I was subsequently asked to delete my public support for Marieha – I refused … The case was due to be conducted in private, I was not told who the complainant was, and this is material given the bad faith practices the court heard about during the trial. I was also told I could not discuss the matter with others. It was effectively to be a secret retrial of the #coconuttrial … I was not prepared to accept this.”
Warsi, who previously served as Conservative Party Chair, has long been an outspoken critic of the party, particularly since Boris Johnson’s tenure as Prime Minister, and has consistently highlighted its Islamophobia problem.
Photo: Former Conservative Party chair Baroness Warsi has resigned from the party in the House of Lords* (Credit: Chris McAndrew/UK parliament).
