Sayeeda Warsi under friendly fire…again!

Political editor Medhi Hassan writes in this weeks Newstatesmen what many people believe to be going in regard to Party Chair Baroness Sayeeda Warsi and certain quarters of the Conservative Party. He states ‘it’s difficult to come to any other conclusion that they don’t like her because: she’s a woman; she's Asian, and she’s’ a Muslim’. He goes to say of course her critics wouldn’t say that so they use other language such as lack of ‘competence and ability’.

Hassan was responding to the unprecedented attack on Warsi in the Telegraph and influential blog Conservative Home. A number of senior Tories, the two media outlets suggest ‘want her gone’.

Warsi, an astute politician has always known that her role as a Muslim woman in one of the highest positions in Government would constantly be difficult, attracting criticism from many sides, some justified some not.   I remember, for example,  being surprised when she came out and said ‘society must listen more to those who are voting for the BNP’.

Although I didn't agree with the way that she put it, in that and subsequent  statements she was in effect trying to appeal to the disenfranchised white working class, whilst simultaneously telling her own Conservative party that just because she is a Muslim doesn’t mean she cannot reach out to other communities. More recently Warsi met the Pope and informed the Pontiff that the values of Christianity are good for this country, again demonstrating her ability as a Muslim to reach out beyond her own faith.

More that any other senior Tory Politian Warsi has had to time and time again demonstrate her loyalty then to the party and its values.  However, for some it’s never enough. The first and only time she raised the issue of growing Islamaphobia her detractors, many of them Tories were out to get her. 

And now they are at it again this time using the language of ability and competency.  But if they were real factors of concern why didn't this concerned group look at the damaging effects of Transport Minister Frances Maude’s ‘fill up you Gerry can’  gaffe that caused panic petrol buying, and one woman to get severely burnt doing what Maude suggested.  Or the wisdom of the ‘Granny Tax’, and the subsequent negative publicity caused by the Chancellor George Osborne.

The issue of Baroness Sayeeda Warsi may be a defining moment for the Conservative Party: Capitulate to the detractors and reverse the gains the Party has made in greater BME representation, or hold firm and ensure more men and women like Warsi can come through to high office and serve the Party.

Simon Woolley