Tory MP says top Muslim peer should be kicked out of party over 'extremists' conference

Emilio Casalicchio

A Conservative MP has called for a senior Muslim peer to be expelled from the party after it emerged he took part in a conference alongside alleged extremists.



Zac Goldsmith said Lord Sheikh should be dumped for heading to the Tunisian get-together or the Tory attacks on Jeremy Corbyn over alleged anti-Semitism would appear “cynical”.

Lord Sheikh - who founded the Conservative Muslim Foundation - hit the headlines this month after he attacked Boris Johnson over his comments about the burqa.

Yesterday he admitted he attended the same International Conference on Monitoring the Palestinian Political and Legal Situation in the Light of Israeli Aggression as Jeremy Corbyn in 2014.

According to reports the conference included a speech by senior Hamas figure Oussama Hamdan, who said violence was “magnificent” and claimed it was “fact” that “Jews drank Christian blood”.

Ex-Tunisian foreign minister Othman Jerandi meanwhile told delegates: “ISIS and Israel are the same thing.”

An official complaint against Mr Sheikh was submitted to the Conservative party, according to the Guido Fawkes website, while Mr Goldsmith hit out on Twitter.

If this man is not immediately expelled from the Conservative Party, the Party hierarchy’s complaints about Corbyn will look entirely cynical. https://t.co/kO7ZMEAUxs — Zac Goldsmith (@ZacGoldsmith) August 14, 2018

Meanwhile, Tory former minister Robert Halfon said if the details added up “there needs to be an investigation by Conservative Party/inquiry re codes of conduct”.

Last week Lord Sheikh said Tory bigwig Mr Johnson should be kicked out of the Conservative party after he said Muslim women who wear burqas look like “bank robbers” and “letter boxes”.