Chair of the Tory Muslim Forum says he’d quit if Boris Johnson become leader, comparing him to Hitler He said that he would quit the party if Johnson became leader, describing him as a ‘buffoon’

The chair of the Conservative Muslim Forum compared the popularity of Boris Johnson to that of Adolf Hitler in the 1930s and vowed to quit the party if he becomes Tory leader.

Mohammed Amin said he would be prepared to leave the party after 36 years as a member if the controversial leadership candidate was elected leader and Prime Minister.

And, speaking after the first leadership ballot saw Mr Johnson come in first place by more than 70 votes, he said popularity was not a sign of a good person or politician.

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Popularity is not the test

Mr Amin told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I am not prepared to be a member of a party that chooses him as its leader. I would resign after 36 years.”

When asked about the former foreign secretary’s popularity among some factions of the party, he said: “There are many horrible people who have been popular. Popularity is not the test.

“The test is, is this person sufficiently moral to be prime minister, and I believe he fails that test.”

Mr Amin added: “A lot of Germans thought that Hitler was the right man for them.”

When challenged by the presenter, who said that comparing Mr Johnson to Hitler was shocking, he replied: “Yes. I am not saying Boris Johnson wants to send people to the gas chamber, clearly he doesn’t. He’s a buffoon.

Lack of morals

“But he, as far as I’m concerned, has insufficient concern about the nature of truth for me to ever be a member of a party that he leads.”

“We don’t expect our politicians, our prime ministers, to be saints. But we do require a basic level of morality and integrity. And of all the candidates in the Conservative Party leadership election, Boris Johnson is the only one that I believe fails that test.”

Mr Amin said a column Mr Johnson wrote last August comparing women who wore burkas to “letter boxes and bank robbers” had put some Muslim women at risk.

“He knew exactly what effect it would have – it would lead to Muslim women who wear niqab and burka being verbally abused on the streets; in certain cases being physically assaulted, with people trying to tear it off.

“He chose to mock Muslim women who wear niqab and burka for his own purposes.”

What did Mr Johnson say about Muslim women? In August 2018 Mr Johnson wrote his weekly column in the Daily Telegraph about the ban on burka’s in Denmark, titled: “Denmark has got it wrong. Yes, the burka is oppressive and ridiculous – but that’s still no reason to ban it.” In the piece he said that the religious headgear was “oppressive” and described it as “weird and bullying to expect women to cover their faces”. He wrote: “It it is absolutely ridiculous that people should choose to go around looking like letter boxes; and I thoroughly dislike any attempt by any – invariably male – government to encourage such demonstrations of ‘modesty’… “If a constituent came to my MP’s surgery with her face obscured, I should feel fully entitled – like Jack Straw – to ask her to remove it so that I could talk to her properly. “If a female student turned up at school or at a university lecture looking like a bank robber then ditto: those in authority should be allowed to converse openly with those that they are being asked to instruct. “All that seems to me to be sensible. But such restrictions are not quite the same as telling a free-born adult woman what she may or may not wear, in a public place, when she is simply minding her own business.”

Mr Johnson is the clear frontrunner in the Tory leadership race after winning 114 votes in the first round of ballots.

But he has come under fire from rivals and the media who have accused him of shying away from taking part in public interviews .

Hiding away

Leadership challenger Jeremy Hunt said Mr Johnson was hiding and said that the frontrunner’s political idol – Winston Churchill – would not approve him shying away from deabate.

He told the BBC: “We can only have that debate if our front-runner in this campaign is a little bit braver in terms of getting out into the media and actually engaging in debates. Engaging in the TV debates.”

Mr Hunt, who said he would take part in leadership TV debates, added: “What would Churchill say if someone who wants to be prime minister of the United Kingdom is hiding away from the media, not taking part in these big occasions?”

The Foreign Secretary refused to say if he believed Mr Johnson would be a good prime minister, merely saying: “I hope he would be if he becomes prime minister.”