Fresh calls for Islamophobia inquiry after Tories said they don’t want Muslim PM

A Labour MP has urged Conservative Party leadership hopefuls to honour their pledge to hold a review into Islamophobia in the party, after almost half of party members said they did not want a Muslim prime minister.

A YouGov study carried out by anti-racism charity Hope Not Hate found that just 8 per cent of the party’s members ‘would be proud of Britain, if we were to elect a Muslim as our prime minister’.

However, 43 per cent agreed that they ‘would prefer to not have the country led by a Muslim’.

The survey also revealed that 67 per cent of Tory members believe ‘there are areas in Britain that operate under Sharia law’.

In addition, 45 per cent believe there are ‘areas in Britain in which non-Muslims are not able to enter.’

Forty percent of those surveyed said Britain should lower the number of Muslims entering the country, compared to just five percent who said the same for Christians or Jewish people.

Wes Streeting, Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on British Muslims, and whose definition of Islamophobia was rejected by the government, has urged whoever replaces Theresa May to tackle the rising ‘hatred within the party’.

Mr Streeting told Metro.co.uk: ‘These findings reveal the shocking extent that racist, Islamophobic views are held among members of the Conservative Party.

‘We now need to see real leadership in tackling the problem, starting with the independent review into Islamophobia that both Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt have agreed to.

‘Muslim communities will not have confidence in the Government’s ability to tackle hate crime in society if they fail to tackle hatred in their own Party.’

Both Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt have committed to holding an independent investigation into Islamophobia in the party, after Sajid Javid challenged all of the leadership candidates during last week’s BBC TV debate to commit to an external investigation.