A Conservative general election candidate shared a message on social media claiming Muslims play the “race card” and have a “nasty culture”, in the latest escalation of concern over Islamophobia in the party.
The former BBC journalist Linden Kemkaran, who is standing for the Conservatives in Labour-held Bradford East, retweeted a user on Twitter last week who dismissed Islamophobia as nonsense – describing it as a “crock”.
She retweeted two others who accused the shadow minister for women and equalities, Naz Shah, who is standing in the neighbouring constituency, of being “not white enough” to have experienced Bradford’s “no-go areas” and claimed that the prospective MP’s loyalties did not lie in the city.
Kemkaran also liked a post labelling Shah – who is British-born and of Pakistani heritage – a “Pakideshi” who pushes the “doggy-do-do Muslim narrative”.
It comes after the Conservative party chairman, James Cleverly, apologised on Sunday after a string of allegations of Islamophobia and racism against the party’s candidates. The Guardian revealed on Friday that at least four ministers had gone on election campaigning trips to endorse Tory candidates accused of anti-Muslim hatred.
Kemkaran – who has been pictured with Boris Johnson – became embroiled in a row with Shah after the shadow minister accused her of using “far-right language”, claiming she told young people at a hustings last Thursday that the city had “crime-infested streets” and “no-go areas”.
Source: The Guardian
