The Conservatives will be relieved that an independent investigation has not found the party to be institutionally racist, though relief is about all they can feel. Professor Swaran Singh’s report, which has taken two years to arrive, paints a picture of a party at best complacent about how its members talk about Muslims.
Professor Singh examined 1,418 complaints about 727 incidents between 2015 and 2020, of which two-thirds were allegations of anti-Muslim discrimination and three-quarters were from social media. The former commissioner of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) concludes that:
Anti-Muslim sentiment has been evidenced at local association and individual levels, as demonstrated by a number of social media complaints against party members which were upheld by the complaints process.
He finds ‘clear evidence of a party complaints system in need of overhaul’, ‘an under-resourced and inadequately trained complaints team’, and ‘a weak data collection system’. The Tories’ sanctions regime comes in for censure too, with Professor Singh finding there are ‘no clear guidelines as to which behaviours should attract which sanctions’.
A party that claims to represent One Nation cannot bear ill will towards three million British people
He also notes one case of an investigation taking seven months to be resolved.
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