London: A Muslim MP has alleged that her faith was mentioned by a government whip as the reason for her sacking as a minister in 2020.
Nusrat Ghani said when she had asked for an explanation, she was told her “Muslimness was raised as an issue”, the Sunday Times reported.
She claimed the government whip told her status as a “Muslim woman… was making colleagues uncomfortable.”
Ghani had become the first female Muslim minister to speak in the House of Commons after being named as a minister in the Department for Transport in 2018. In February 2020, however, there was a mini reshuffle of PM Boris Johnson’s cabinet in which Ghani lost her job, BBC reported.
Chief Whip Mark Spencer said Ghani’s claims were ‘completely false’ and he considered them defamatory.
A 10 Downing Street spokesperson said Johnson had previously met Ghani to discuss her concerns.
He then wrote to her expressing his serious concern and inviting her to begin a formal complaint process, but Ghani did not do so.
She was quoted as saying that she dropped the matter after being told that she would be “ostracised” and her career and reputation would be “destroyed” if she persisted with the matter.
