Boris Johnson orders top level probe into claims Tory MP was fired for being Muslim
BORIS Johnson has launched a top level probe into claims a Tory minister was fired for being Muslim.
The PM has ordered the Cabinet Office to look into the bullying allegations made by Nusrat Ghani.
Ms Ghani insists she was pushed out of her government job over her faith.
The MP claimed a whip told her that colleagues were “uncomfortable” with her being a female Muslim minister.
And she was warned if she complained her career and reputation would be destroyed.
Downing Street insisted the PM had spoken to Ms Ghani at the time in summer 2020 about her worries and told her to register a formal complaint but she had not done so.
Boris spoke to her again last night to tell her he was launching an investigation.
A No 10 spokesman said today: “The Prime Minister has asked the Cabinet Office to conduct an inquiry into the allegations made by Nusrat Ghani MP.
“At the time these allegations were first made, the Prime Minister recommended to her that she make a formal complain to CCHQ. She did not take up this offer.
“The Prime Minister has now asked officials to establish the facts about what happened.
“As he said at the time, the Prime Minister takes these claims very seriously.”
Ms Ghani welcomed the inquiry and said it must cover “all that was said in Downing Street and by the whip”.
She added: “As I said to the Prime Minister last night, all I want is for this to be taken seriously and for him to investigate.”
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Ms Ghani, who spoke to whips after being moved from her transport minister job, said yesterday that “not a day has gone by without thinking about what I was told”.
Chief Whip Mark Spencer declared he was the one who had talked to her — but he denied her accusations and called them “defamatory”.
He insisted: “I have never used those words attributed to me. It is disappointing that, when this issue was raised before, Ms Ghani declined to refer the matter to the Party for a formal investigation.”
This morning education secretary Nadhim Zahawi said the claims will be thoroughly investigated.
He said: “Nus is a valued colleague, I’ve known her for a very long time. She has made a very serious allegation.
“I think it is important that someone like a Cabinet Office senior civil servant should look at this properly, because the Chief Whip has also categorically denied this.”
BORIS FUTURE HANGING IN THE BALANCE
Natasha Clark
BORIS Johnson faces his make-or-break week as Westminster anxiously awaits Sue Gray’s report into Downing Street parties.
Chief Whitehall enforcer Ms Gray is expected to speak to the PM’s former-aide-turned-enemy, Dominic Cummings, before her report comes out in midweek.
Yesterday, Deputy PM Dominic Raab risked the fury of MPs by refusing to confirm her report would be published in full. He said: “I am not quite sure the shape and form it will come in but she will come back reasonably soon and people can see it.”
Mr Raab admitted if the PM was found to have misled MPs then it was a resigning matter.
Stephen Kerr, the Scottish Conservative chief whip, said the PM’s resignation was now an inevitability as the report and its fallout was likely to trigger a no-confidence vote.
Yesterday, Carrie Johnson was dragged into the row after it was claimed that two friends — senior Tory aides Henry Newman and Josh Grimstone — visited the No10 flat several times during lockdown. It has been argued their visits were for work purposes.