Boris Johnson today apologised for the ‘hurt and offence’ caused by Islamophobia in Tory ranks.
The Prime Minister said sorry as he pledged his party would hold an inquiry into ‘every manner of prejudice and discrimination’ – and it will start before Christmas.
The comments from Mr Johnson contrast with Jeremy Corbyn’s refusal again to offer a personal apology for the anti-Semitism that has been wracking Labour.
The veteran left-winger has stayed defiant despite facing a blistering attack on his record from the Chief Rabbi – supported by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
As faith and tolerance moved to the centre of the election debate this week, the Conservatives came under fire for their handling of Islamophobia allegations by the Muslim Council of Britain.
Mr Johnson, speaking on a visit to Goonhilly Earth Station on the Lizard peninsula in Cornwall, told reporters: ‘Obviously whenever we have an incident of anti-Semitism or Islamophobia or whatever in the Conservative Party we take a zero tolerance approach… We have a one bounce and we deal with it approach to this.
Boris Johnson said sorry as he pledged his party would hold an inquiry into ‘every manner of prejudice and discrimination’ – and it will start before Christmas
‘We are going to have an independent inquiry into Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, every manner of prejudice and discrimination and it will start before Christmas.’
Asked if he apologised for the Islamophobia that has taken place in the Tory Party, he replied: ‘Of course and for all the hurt and offence that has been caused – of course we do.
‘And all that is intolerable and it’s so important as a country that we don’t allow that kind of thing and that’s why we’re going to have the independent inquiry.’
Earlier, Tory parliamentary candidate for Luton South, Parvez Akhtar, called on Mr Johnson to ‘unequivocally apologise’ for his comments and commit to holding a ‘full independent’ inquiry into Islamophobia in the party.
Mr Akhtar said Mr Johnson’s comments about Muslim women were having an effect on the doorstep, adding that the Tories have a ‘blind spot when it comes to Muslims’.
In a statement, Mr Akhtar said that as a party member since 2005 he knows about ‘anti-Muslim hatred within the party’ and experienced it himself as a candidate in 2009 and 2017.
He added: ‘During my campaign for Luton South, where 30% of the population is Muslim, it has become increasingly obvious, the hurt and anger that has been caused by the comments of the Prime Minister about Muslim women.
‘Whatever the intent of the column, the effect has been to reinforce the widely held view that the Conservative Party has a blind spot when it comes to Muslims.’
He added: ‘I am therefore calling on the Prime Minister to unequivocally apologise for his comments about Muslim women and agree to hold a full independent and transparent inquiry into Islamophobia within the Conservative Party.’
Yesterday Britain’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said Labour’s handling of the issue, which has dogged the party under Mr Corbyn’s leadership, was ‘incompatible’ with British values.
The Labour leader responded by insisting that anti-Jewish racism was ‘vile and wrong’.
But he refused four times in a car-crash BBC interview last night to say sorry to the Jewish community.
At a press conference in Westminster this morning, Mr Corbyn again stopped of offering a personal apology – merely saying the party as an institution had ‘offered its sympathies and apologies’.
‘Our party did make it clear when I was elected leader and after that that anti-Semitism was unacceptable in any form in our society and in our party – and did indeed offer its sympathies and apologies to those that had suffered,’ he said.
Shadow trade secretary Barry Gardener (left) angrily rebuked reporters for asking about the anti-Semitism controversy instead of focusing on ‘leaked’ documents
Shadow trade secretary Barry Gardener angrily rebuked reporters for asking about the controversy instead of focusing on ‘leaked’ documents that Labour claims show the NHS could be undermined in talks with the US over a post-Brexit trade deal.
‘Is that just an opportune moment to get a dig in about something else?’ he snapped. ‘We are here today to talk about a trade deal.’
Frontbenchers have also tried to limit the damage by expressing their own regret over the party’s handling of anti-Semitism by hard-Left activists.
Speaking as part of a BBC Wales debate, shadow defence secretary Nia Griffith said: ‘Jeremy Corbyn has arranged to meet the Chief Rabbi and I would say absolutely that we need to apologise to our colleagues in my own party who have been very upset and to the whole of the Jewish community as a whole, that we have not been as effective as we should have been in dealing with this problem.’
She added: ‘It is a shame on us, it really is, and it is something that I am very, very ashamed of, and something we must absolutely put right.’
Justice Secretary Richard Burgon, a Corbyn ultra-loyalist, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the party was sorry.
And shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth said: ‘I feel a great sense of sorrow and I want to apologise.’
