- Monday, March 10, 2025
By: Chandrashekar Bhat
The investigation into Conservative MP Nus Ghani’s claims of religious bias in the government is back on track after being stalled during the political turmoil last year.
Prime minister Rishi Sunak’s ethics adviser Sir Laurie Magnus will now carry on the inquiry, the BBC reported.
Ghani who was made transport minister in 2018 lost her job in 2020 when the then prime minister Boris Johnson reshuffled his government.
She alleged last year that when she asked whips for an explanation, she was told her “Muslimness was raised as an issue” at a meeting in Downing Street.
The British South Asian politician claimed she was also told her “Muslim woman minister status was making colleagues feel uncomfortable”.
She later said in a statement: “Not a day has gone by without thinking about what I was told and wondering why I was in politics… those that have not had their identity and faith questioned cannot fully appreciate what it does to you.”
Food, farming and fisheries minister Mark Spencer, who was the chief whip at the time, identified himself as the person at the centre of Ghani’s allegation but flatly denied her accusations.
“These accusations are completely false and I consider them to be defamatory. I have never used those words attributed to me,” Spencer said in January last year.
Johnson later ordered an inquiry into her claims but the process was delayed because of the resignation of the prime minister’s ethics adviser Lord Geidt in June last year.
Sir Magnus was appointed as Lord Geidt’s replacement in December resulting in the resumption of the investigation.
Ghani has been brought back into the government and now she is a minister of state in the department for business and trade.
