Peter Oborne writes:

At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Keir Starmer turned brutally on Kemi Badenoch and demanded that the Conservative leader sack Nick Timothy as shadow justice secretary.

He had every reason to do so. Timothy, who has ignited the latest culture war to engulf British politics, has a record of stirring up hatred and division against Muslims.

Earlier this week, Timothy went on the attack yet again by sharing a video on social media of London Mayor Sadiq Khan praying in Trafalgar Square, along with hundreds of other Muslims, as they participated in a public iftar event marking the holy Islamic month of Ramadan.

Most reasonable people would see this as a moving and deeply peaceful moment of respect and togetherness.

Emphatically, not Timothy.

“Too many are too polite to say this,” he snarled on X. “But mass ritual prayer in public places is an act of domination.”

He went on to add: “The domination of public places is straight from the Islamist playbook.”

Incredibly, Badenoch, sitting a few feet away from Timothy on the Tory front bench, leapt to his defence. According to the Tory leader, he was “defending British values”.

Starmer noted that he had never seen the Tories “call out anything other than the Muslim events”. He concluded: “The Tory party has got a problem with Muslims.”

It is impossible to disagree. The Conservative Party, as I have demonstrated in a series of articles for Middle East Eye, has become a cesspit of Islamophobic and racist bigotry.

This is a phenomenon that should terrify ordinary British Muslims. It is also a very recent phenomenon.

Two decades ago, anyone who expressed views as bigoted as Timothy’s would have been quickly disowned by any Tory leader. [Continue reading…]