LABOUR claims the Islamophobia row sparked by Boris Johnson’s recent comments about the burka hit the Tories’ East ward by-election campaign.

Cllr Gavin McGill beat Tory challenger Sohail Raja by more than 860 votes to claim former leader Mike Connolly’s seat.

And while the ward is traditionally safe Labour territory, Cllr Tamoor Tariq says that the “failure” of the Tories to deal with Islamophobia was a factor in his party’s comfortable victory.

Referring to the fallout from Mr Johnson comparing Muslim women who wear burkas with letterboxes, Cllr Tariq said: “Islamophobia has been a key issue in this by-election, it's something we have picked up on very strongly among the community.

“What’s clear is the true face of the Conservative Party has been shown, not only by Boris Johnson, but by the failure of the Conservative Party to hold a full independent investigation into Islamophobic nature of their members, whether grass roots or senior."

He added that, while Bury Conservatives were not Islamophobic, Muslim communities felt marginalised by the former foreign secretary’s remarks.

He said: “The Conservative Party has undermined Muslim communities, particularly Muslim women, attacking them through the comments of Boris Johnson.

"The failure of the Conservative Party to take any action has resulted in people understanding the true face of the Conservatives and that has been reflected in East Ward election.

“There has been a considerable difference in terms of the support the Conservatives would have received three months ago (when the local elections were held) and this goes to the heart of the party’s failure to tackle the issue.”

Cllr Tariq added that, while the problem was not specific to Bury Conservatives, the people of East ward had used the election to “send a clear message” that the party had not done enough to tackle Islamophobia.

The Conservative’s defeated East ward candidate Sohail Raja is himself a Muslim and group leader James Daly said his party was concentrated on improving local people's lives, not national issues.

He said: “We had a fantastic Muslim candidate, he is a good man and we are a multi-cultural town, that’s something to celebrate. We value each other within this town and each other’s religions and ways of life and hopefully that will continue.”

On added: “I think it’s a great shame for residents of East ward, who have been neglected for decades by Labour who have not supported them. We, in the Conservative Party, had a brilliant candidate and had a chance to transform the area and transform people’s life chances.”