Tory official resigns from party after 'seeing Muslim man quizzed over religious practices'

Kyle Pedley steps down as deputy chair of local Conservative branch, saying other members' attitudes left him 'completely aghast'

The deputy chair of a local Conservative branch has quit the party over what he claimed was Islamophobia among members.

Kyle Pedley resigned as a local party officer and Tory council candidate in Stourbridge after saying he had witnessed a Muslim member face a grilling over his religious practices.

He said he had been present during an interview in which the man, who was seeking to be selected as a Tory council candidate, had been asked how many times a day he prayed and how often he went to the mosque.

Local Tory officers then discussed between themselves whether "we need an Asian", he said.

Mr Pedley said he had complained twice to the Conservative Party about the incident but had received no response.

He resigned from the party after deciding that there were a "series of issues, problems and things I've encountered which I can't align with my own personal convictions and my own personal beliefs".

The news came a day after the Tories were forced to suspend more than 20 current and former councillors over allegations of Islamophobia and racism.

Boris Johnson and other senior Conservatives have repeatedly pledged to hold a full inquiry into Islamophobia in party ranks but the probe has yet to take place.

Explaining why he had decided to leave the party, Mr Pedley told the BBC: "In my first meeting as an officer, a selection meeting, we interviewed a candidate. He put forward a very compelling case, he spoke about his conservative principles, his background, his experience in the ward he was going for as a council candidate.

"As soon as his two-minute pitch ended he was faced with a barrage of questioning which was factored around one thing and one thing alone, and that was his religion and his race. It was, 'Are you really a Muslim? Do you pray five times a day? How many times do you go to the mosque? How many times a year do you go to the mosque? How many Muslims do you even think there are in the ward?"

He added: "I just sat there aghast - completely aghast. Immediately as he went out of the room the first topic of conversation was not about his merit, was not about his suitability for the role - it was essentially along the lines of 'Do we need an Asian? Will the Asians even come out and vote?'. That's almost ad verbatim the discussion that followed when the candidate went out the room."

Baroness Warsi, the Tory peer and former party co-chair, said she was "shocked but not surprised" at Mr Pedley's claims.

She said: "This is really a reflection of the kind of things that I've been hearing over four years, happening in associations up and down the country...

"If these comments were used in any other job interview, it would be illegal. It would be like a woman going into an job interview to be a candidate and the association asking her when she intended to have children and how many she was going to have. You wouldn't be able to get away with that in any other walk of life and you shouldn't in politics."

The allegations also prompted the Muslim Council of Britain to demand that the Conservatives suspend the Stourbridge branch of the party.

Harun Khan, its secretary general, said: “The barrage of questioning the prospective candidate faced solely due to their Muslimness is unacceptable. The local party must be suspended immediately whilst an investigation takes place.

“This is yet another example demonstrating how the Conservative Party has proven itself to be fertile breeding ground for Islamophobia. What more needs to happen for the party to acknowledge the problem?

He added: “As the general election draws closer, many British Muslims will want to vote for the Conservatives, as they have done before. We fear many will be held back by the systemic Islamophobia that exists in the party, and will remain sceptical of claims of an anti-racist Conservative Party.

“It now must accept responsibility, commit to an independent inquiry into Islamophobia, and genuinely seek to tackle anti-Muslim racism in its ranks.”

Among the more than 20 Tory members suspended by the party this week are a councillor in Bournemouth who wrote on Facebook in 2016: “I hate to ban anything really but I’d suggest we start with mosques!”

A parish councillor in Sandiacre was suspended after it emerged that he had referred to Muslims as “the enemy within” and claimed that politicians had sold “us to slavery of Muslims”.

And ​a Tory councillor in Kettering was found to have claimed that London mayor Sadiq Khan “will always lobby against anybody or anything which finds itself in direct conflict with Islam”. Mr Khan owed his position to "the exploding Muslim hordes that now dominate London and suppress any counter votes from the more white conservative outer London boroughs," he claimed,.