Tory MP Inflames Islamophobia Row By Claiming There Are Religious 'No Go' Areas In The UK

Tory backbencher Paul Scully has claimed there are “no go areas” in some parts of the UK due to “changing neighbourhoods”.

Scully, who was a minister under Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, spoke to BBC Radio London on Monday morning about the ongoing Islamophobia row within the Conservative Party.

Scully said “for years” people have been “concerned” about their “neighbourhoods changing”.

“They’re trying to reflect that but in a really, really clumsy way,” he said. “We’ve got to have a sensible use of language so that we can have a constructive adult debate about this.”

Host Salma El-Wardany asked Scully: “Do you think the Conservative Party has a problem with Islamophobia or anti-Muslim sentiment?” 

He replied: “You’re right, if you would just look at the neighbourhood comment, if you would just look in the colour of skin, for example, when a number of Indians were coming in the 70s – my father is half-Burmese, so I’ve seen it first hand – and if it’s about the colour of skin that’s one thing...

“The point I’m trying to make is if you look at parts of Tower Hamlets, for example, where there are ‘no-go’ areas, parts of Birmingham, Sparkhill, where there are ‘no-go’ areas, mainly because of doctrine, people using, abusing in many ways, their religion because it’s not the doctrine of this land, to espouse what some of these people are saying.”

The Sutton and Cheam MP spoke to the media after backbencher Lee Anderson – who was deputy chair of the Tory Party until last month – had the Conservative whip removed over the weekend.

Anderson refused to apologise for telling GB News “Islamists” have “got control” of the London mayor Sadiq Khan, who is Muslim.

Sunak then said this attack on the Labour politician was “unacceptable” but denied that the Tory party had “Islamophobic tendencies”.

Scully’s comments were then understandably met with fury on X.