Boris Johnson’s first PMQs (inset Sir Lindsay Holye) – Credit WikiCommons
Hamed Chapman
An unprecedented intervention by the Speaker of the House of Commons this month created an air of bewilderment during Prime Minister’s Questions. Sir Lindsay Hoyle prevented Boris Johnson from being questioned about his history of offensive remarks about Muslims.
Labour MP Imran Hussain raised concerns about the PM’s untimely promotion of Chief Whip Mark Spencer to be the Commons Leader despite being under government investigation for alleged Islamophobia before turning his attention to Johnson’s role.
“We all know that the Prime Minister himself is no stranger to derogatory remarks about Muslim women, so let me ask the Prime Minister,” the MP for Bradford East said, before being stopped in his tracks by the Speaker calling order and saying “his is not the appropriate place to be raising that” before proceeding to another question.
Hoyle made no attempt to explain why he cut off Hussein, but a spokesperson for Commons authorities later suggested that the convention set out is that MPs “should not make accusations about the conduct of other members as a ‘sideswipe’ as part of a question.”
Hussain later remained unrepentant, questioning why he had been silenced, “They can’t stop me speaking out against this Government’s disgusting racism-so I ask here: If you can’t call out Islamophobia at PMQs, then where can you?”- Johnson’s most notorious Islamophobic comments include describing Muslim women as looking like “bank robbers” and “letterboxes” in a 2018 article for the Daily Telegraph, for which he has consistently refused to apologise, merely apologising for the offences caused.
After the high-profile comments, Tell MAMA, which records instances of Islamophobia, documented a 375 percent increase in attacks against Muslims that directly referenced Johnson or the language he used in the week following the publication of Johnson’s column.
Separately, the Vice-Chair of the All-Party Group on British Muslims, Naz Shah, has challenged Johnson’s “zero tolerance” approach to Islamophobia after he promoted Spencer to replace Jacob Rees-Mogg.
“It is wholly inappropriate that an individual who allegedly made Islamophobic comments is being promoted as the Leader of the House without the investigation into the matter having even been concluded,” Shah said.
“If this is the change the Prime Minister was talking about, clearly, it doesn’t include having a zero-tolerance approach to Islamophobia,” the Labour MP, who also serves as Shadow Minister for Crime Reduction, told PoliticsHome.
The Deputy Opposition Leader, Angela Rayner, has also formally written to the Cabinet Secretary to seek clarity regarding the status of the investigation ordered by the Prime Minister into allegations of Islamophobia in the Government raised by former Tory Minister, Nusrat Ghani.
Johnson ordered a formal inquiry after claims made by Ghani that she was sacked as Transport Minister almost two years ago because of her Muslim religion.
The PM had previously written to her, saying “he could not get involved”. The former minister did not name Spencer herself as one of the culprits, but he identified himself as the accused when her allegations were made public last month when he strenuously denied the remarks and alleged they were “defamatory”.