LONDON — A Conservative MP has been criticized over his response to a complaint by a fellow minister, in which she accused him of making “humiliating” comments about her Muslim faith.
In a report released Thursday, the prime minister’s ethics adviser Laurie Magnus stopped short of saying former Chief Whip Mark Spencer had broken the ministerial code in his response to the allegations by Nus Ghani, whom he now serves alongside in government.
But he said Spencer, who is currently the farming minister, had shown a “lack of care” over his response to Ghani’s claim that she had been told her “Muslimness” was the reason she was being fired from then PM-Boris Johnson’s government.
Following the report’s publication, Ghani highlighted what she described as “the ‘omissions,’ ‘shortcomings,’ ‘incomplete information,’ ‘inaccurate briefings’ and claims ‘implied without evidence,’” which she said the ethics adviser identified in Spencer’s “actions and story.” Spencer did not respond to the report’s findings or Ghani’s claims.
Johnson ordered the Cabinet Office probe into the allegation that Spencer told Ghani, following her sacking from government, that her Muslim faith made colleagues “uncomfortable.”
In his response to the report, PM Rishi Sunak said the issue had been “an unsatisfactory experience for both ministers involved.”
“But in the absence of clear evidence, it would not be right to take further action,” he added.
Ghani did not identify Spencer in her interview with the Sunday Times, where she first revealed that in a meeting with government whips, after her sacking as transport minister, she was told that her “Muslimness” had been raised as an “issue” by other Conservatives. She said an unnamed whip made the comment.
Spencer identified himself as the target of the accusation on Twitter, describing the accusations as “completely false.” He also pointed to the Singh investigation concerning Islamophobia in the Tory Party, which he said “concluded that there was no credible basis for the claims.”
Shortcomings identified
In his report into the matter, Magnus said it “has not been possible to draw a clear picture of what was discussed,” in the meetings between Ghani and Spencer, due to their “differing accounts” and “different recollections of what was said.”
However, Magnus did say that there “were some shortcomings” in the way Spencer responded to Ghani’s concerns.
Pointing to his initial tweets, Magnus said: “Spencer should have taken more care with the statements made on Twitter on 22nd January 2022 which … implied without evidence that the Singh Investigation had dismissed Ms Ghani’s concerns.”
Magnus also criticized Spencer’s briefing of then-PM Johnson ahead of his meeting with Ghani over the accusations.
Johnson met with Ghani to discuss her allegations in July 2020 and urged her to make a formal complaint to the Conservative Party. In response, Ghani said she believed it was a “government matter” that should not be handled by an internal party procedure.
Ahead of that meeting, the report says, Spencer provided incomplete information about the issue to Johnson. Though Spencer met with Ghani twice in March 2020, he omitted details about the first meeting — which Magnus says “added further difficulty” to Ghani’s “stressful” meeting with the man at the top of the U.K. government. Spencer has acknowledged he provided inaccurate information.
“Given his his influential position as the then chief whip, and the centrality of the information he had to supply, Mr Spencer should have taken more care when briefing the then prime minister,” Magnus wrote.
In a statement, Ghani said: “We all serve at the Prime Minister’s choosing and there is no shame in a political career ending.
“But to be told your faith and identity is the reason for it cannot be acceptable in any way. The impact of being told this was devastating and my motivation in pursuing the complaint was to ensure it wasn’t buried, but that it ended with me so that no other colleague would have to endure anything similar.”
