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£54.00Baroness Warsi, a former Conservative Party chairwoman and the UK’s first Muslim cabinet minister, has resigned from the party in the House of Lords. Warsi accused the party of moving to the “far right” and of displaying “hypocrisy and double standards in its treatment of different communities”. The Conservatives say that Warsi was about to be investigated for allegedly using “divisive language”. A statement by a party spokesperson said: “We have a responsibility to ensure that all complaints are investigated without prejudice.” The complaints are said to be in relation to a post about Marieha Hussain.
Hussain was previously found not guilty of a racially aggravated public order offence after depicting Conservative leader Rishi Sunak and former Home Secretary Suella Braverman as coconuts at a pro-Palestine protest. In a post on social media platform X, Warsi congratulated Hussain on her acquittal. After her resignation, Warsi wrote: “It was the right decision and I rightly congratulated Marieha on her acquittal. I was subsequently asked to delete my public support for Marieha – I refused to do so. That is the basis of the complaint. No other comments or language is the basis of the complaint.”
Baroness Warsi has been a vocal critic of the Conservative party’s approach to allegations of Islamophobia, as well as the language used by the party’s politicians, including Ms Braverman. Her resignation comes on the eve of the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham. She wrote: “It is with a heavy heart that I have today informed my whip and decided for now to no longer take the Conservative whip. This is a sad day for me. I am a Conservative and remain so but sadly the current party are far removed from the party I joined and served in cabinet. My decision is a reflection of how far right my party has moved and the hypocrisy and double standards in its treatment of different communities.” She has suggested that she will raise some of these issues in her new book, “Muslims Don’t Matter.”
After the 2010 general election, Baroness Warsi made history by becoming the first Muslim woman in the cabinet as co-chair of the Conservative Party. A former solicitor with the Crown Prosecution Service, she then served as a minister and resigned as the minister for faith and communities in 2014 over the UK government’s policy on the Israel-Gaza conflict. Warsi has since criticised the party’s inquiry into Islamophobia, describing it as “institutionally xenophobic and racist”. Resigning the Conservative whip means that she will no longer be affiliated with the party in the House of Lords, where she has sat as a peer since 2007. The party is currently still choosing its next leader, with the final four candidates set to make speeches at the conference in Birmingham. The result will be announced on 2nd November
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