Racism, anti-Semitism and the Conservative Party

While the controversy over anti-Semitism has raged in the Labour Party, the question of Islamophobia in the Conservative Party has gone largely unnoticed. That happy state of affairs for the Tories has been brought to an end with the recent accusations made by Baroness Warsi that Theresa May was burying her head in the sand about Islamophobia in the party. As the BBC comments: 
"Former party chairwoman Baroness Warsi said the PM had failed to "acknowledge" or "tackle" the problem and this was "symptomatic" of her wider leadership."

 The Conservative party has since suspended 14 members for making Islamophobic Facebook comments. Significantly, the BBC goes on to say:

 "The suspensions followed messages posted on a Facebook group called the "Jacob Rees-Mogg Supporters Group...She (Baroness Warsi) suggested the "rot had set in" several years ago and accused senior party officials of being "in denial".

With all due respect to Baroness Warsi, while the Tory party may have problems with Islamophobia now, the "rot" of racism and anti-Semitism set in with the Conservatives a long time ago.

From its founding in 1834, the Conservative Party has had a "problem" with anti-Semitism. The party founder, Sir Robert Peel, was a vocal opponent of Jewish Emancipation. Benjamin Disraeli, a Jewish convert to Christianity, was shunned by fellow Conservative MPs following his election as an MP in 1837. The Conservatives fought against the Jewish Relief Act until its passing in 1858.

With the influx of Jewish refugees from Tsarist persecution at the turn of the 19th century, Conservative party members founded the para-military British Brothers League and the  Parliamentary Alien Immigration Committee, both of which exerted pressure to pass the Aliens Act of 1905.

 Fast forwarding to the 1930s, the Conservative government expressed no condemnation of Nazi Germany's persecution of the Jews, dismissing it as an internal matter. In more recent times, Alan Clark, who later became Minister in both the Thatcher and Major governments, wrote in his diary in 1981:

 'I really believed it (National Socialism) to be the ideal system, and that it was a disaster for the Anglo-Saxon races and for the world that it was extinguished'

Both Edwina Currie and Leon Brittain reportedly felt that they were criticised unfairly by other senior Tories simply because of anti-Semitism.

More recently, there have been a number of instances of anti-Semitic activity at national and grass roots level. Boris Johnson has held talks with the alleged anti-Semite, Steve Bannon. In November 2017 it was revealed that Conservative Party activists were members of a Facebook group called Young Right Society, which posted anti-Semitic, Holocaust denying and racist material. Conservative history on this matter dwarfs Labour party anti-Semitism into next to nothing - no wonder the Tories have been so quiet on the subject.

As for racism against black and Asian people, we saw clear manifestations of this in the Tory party with the election of Peter Griffiths, MP for Smethwick, in 1964, and the infamous so-called "Rivers of Blood" speech of Enoch Powell, in 1968. In 1978, Margaret Thatcher, then Leader of the Opposition, said on TV:

 ""People [in Britain] are rather afraid that this country might be swamped by people with a different culture"

She also described Nelson Mandela as a "terrorist", and did nothing to stop Conservative university students distributing "Hang Nelson Mandela" posters. Also, it's forgotten now, but future Tory PM David Cameron went on a "sanctions-busting jolly" to South Africa with the anti-sanctions Conservative Research Department.

It's no surprise , then to learn of incidents such as this, taken from REKNR:

"In a 2002 column for the Daily Telegraph, Boris Johnson (then MP for Henley) described black people as “piccaninnies” with “watermelon smiles”. He apologised six years later in 2008 (when running to be London Mayor). No disciplinary action was taken by the Conservative Party at any point."

Or this:

"In January 2010, Tory Councillor for Colne, Smith Benson, complained that there were “too many P***s” in his town.  Council Leader Tony Beckett refused to discipline him and said, “I think for the Labour Party to say he should be sacked for making a sweeping statement is a bit strong.”

One last example:

"In December 2015, it was revealed that Oliver Letwin, then an adviser to Margaret Thatcher, had made a series of racist remarks following the riots in 1985, describing black people as having “bad moral attitudes”, and saying schemes to help black people would be spent in “the disco and drugs trade” and employment programmes would only see black people “graduate… into unemployment and crime”. The Conservative Party took no disciplinary action and Mr Letwin remains a government minister".

All of which points to a far worse situation in the Conservative Party than a recent outbreak of Islamophobia. The worst racists I have ever known were all Conservative Party members or supporters; the passage of time and the development of a multicultural and multiracial society has clearly not eradicated those racist attitudes among the Tories. Good luck, Baroness Warsi - you've got your work cut out.