The Conservative Party has tonight been slammed for failing to name out racism following the Diane Abbott row.
Ayesha Hazarika, a broadcaster who was political adviser to senior Labour Party politicians for eight years, appeared on tonight’s Question Time on BBC and took the Tories to process on extremism.
The opening query involved the Government’s newest definition of extremism – at the moment declared by Michael Gove as “the promotion or advancement of an ideology based on violence, hatred or intolerance, that aims to: negate or destroy the fundamental rights and freedoms of others”. It comes after the Tory Party’s greatest donor allegedly stated seeing former Labour frontbencher Diane Abbott on TV makes you “want to hate all black women”.
Ms Hazarika, a columnist and radio broadcaster, stated: “What I have been seeing cynically over months, I’m sure you’ve all seen it here, is using extremism as a fig leaf, actually to promote a lot of anti-Muslim and Islamophobia in this country.
“I discover it extraordinary that, within the week that now we have had these feedback from this Tory donor, the Conservative Party took an entire day to even outline what racism is. They despatched ministers out on the morning rounds (press interviews) saying ‘this man hadn’t been racist. He had simply been a bit impolite.’
“He talked about shooting a black woman, not any black woman as well, our first ever elected black woman in British political history. This is a party that couldn’t even define that as racist. How on earth are they going to define what extremism is?”
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BBC)
Her feedback had been applauded warmly by tonight’s viewers in Liverpool. When Fiona Bruce, the present’s presenter, requested the room in the event that they supported Mr Gove’s response at the moment, not a single particular person raised their hand.
Lee Rowley MP and Housing Minister conceded the Tories had “a difficult week” and, on the programme, stated the feedback about Ms Abbott had been racist. The viewers initially laughed because the MP for North East Derbyshire addressed Ms Hazarika’s scathing criticism.
“Within politics, people say things which are incorrect. The first thing they need to do is say that was wrong and then more broadly, as a society, we have to decide what we want to do with people who get things wrong, and who say things wrong,” Mr Rowley stated.
“The question is ‘do we forgive, or we just ostracise?’ Some people in this audience will say ‘that’s it, we are done’ and other people will say ‘actually, second chances’. My personal view, I’ve tried to do this all the way through my career in politics as an MP, is try to give second chances, and not just on my side but on the other side as well. I think we are better as a society, as a community, if we do that.”
Mr Gove, Communities Secretary, had informed MPs at the moment three Muslim-led teams and two neo-Nazi organisations may face motion. He informed MPs that the Muslim Association of Britain, Cage and Mend, in addition to the far-right British National Socialist Movement and Patriotic Alternative, will probably be examined.