London (Parliament Politic Magazine) – Tory MP Rehman Chishti accuses Rishi Sunak of neglecting Muslim voters, citing lack of engagement and failure to address Islamophobia. Chishti also criticizes the government’s response to anti-Muslim hate crimes.
MP Rehman Chishti Rishi has claimed that Sunak has “made the calculation” that he doesn’t need Muslim voters for his “political purposes”,
Tory MP Rehman Chishti revealed to Sky News’ Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge that during the last leadership election, Mr. Sunak vowed he was “committed” to engaging with the residents and told him: “We will work together on this if I become prime minister”.
However, Mr. Chishti stated he had “not seen the prime minister for over a year and a half”.
The former foreign minister – who once put himself forward for the Conservative Party leadership – also condemned Mr. Sunak for failing to designate an independent adviser on Islamophobia, which both David Cameron and Theresa May did while in office.
Indicating to statistics from the Tell MAMA organization, Mr. Chishti expressed there had been over 2,000 incidents of anti-Muslim hate offenses in the past four months since the Israel-Hamas war began.
“I’ve said to the prime minister, look, let’s treat all faith communities fairly and equally,” he said.
“So with regards to the Jewish community, antisemitism has seen a real unacceptable rise, and therefore the government has rightly put forward the resources [and] it has an independent adviser to deal with antisemitism.
“However, with regards to the Muslim community… the prime minister has failed to appoint an independent adviser on Islamophobia for the last 16 months and there’s been no funding… for that.
“And then you look at the prime minister’s statement [on Sunday], when he talks about intolerance and hate in politics, and he makes it very clear the government is committed to dealing with that and he says dealing with anti-Semitism. Absolutely.
“But there’s no mention in that statement yesterday about tackling anti-Muslim hate.”
Further, he said, “I think maybe the prime minister has made the calculation, you know, he doesn’t want to engage with the Muslim community because he doesn’t need that for his political purposes.”
Meanwhile, the media has also contacted Number 10 for a response.
Mr. Chishti’s statements come amid an ongoing row within the Tory ranks over the suspension of former deputy chair, Lee Anderson.
Mr. Anderson refused to apologize for declaring in an interview that “Islamists” had taken “control” over London and that mayor Sadiq Khan had “given our capital city away to his mates”.
While Mr. Sunak called the remarks inappropriate and “wrong”, he declined to call them Islamophobic. Some Conservatives have called for Mr. Anderson to be reinstated, while others want the administration to go further in their condemnation of the Ashfield MP.
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Mr. Chishti expressed that Mr. Anderson’s comments were “completely and utterly unacceptable” and a “lazy use of language”. But he would not convey that if the remarks were racist and said it was another justification for having an independent adviser who could make a ruling without political influence.