Johnson sorry for offence over 2018 'burqa' remarks

BRITISH prime minister Boris Johnson has said sorry for his past remarks comparing women in full-face veils to “letterboxes.”

In a report commissioned by the Conservative party into alleged discrimination, the prime minister, who previously refused to apologise for his comments published in the Daily Telegraph in 2018, said, "I do know that offence has been taken at things I’ve said, that people expect a person in my position to get things right, but in journalism, you need to use language freely. I am obviously sorry for any offence taken.”

He further added that he had studied the Qu'ran and did not believe that Islam or Muslims in Britain posed a threat to the nation.

The prime minister had ordered an investigation in 2019 into how his Conservative party handles discrimination allegations, the final report of which came out today.

Chaired by Professor Swaran Singh, it cited examples of Johnson voicing comments which came across as insensitive to the Muslim community, including when he referred to women wearing burqas as "going around looking like letter boxes" and likened their appearance to bank robbers.

Analysing 1,418 complaints relating to 727 separate incidents as recorded in the Tories' complaints database between 2015 and 2020 where about two-thirds were related to allegations of anti-Muslim discrimination, Singh said from the prime minister to local party associations, the Tories had a problem with anti-Muslim sentiments, though there is no evidence of institutional racism.

The report said the party's complaints system is in need of "an overhaul" as there has been a lack of transparency in the complaints process along with the absence of a clear decision-making process and has specified a time frame for resolution.

Singh also concluded that several interviewees feel that the cultural values of several minority groups to some extent matched with Conservative party values, yet the party is not seen as a natural political home for these communities and that Tories needed to do more to engage with Muslims.

Apart from Johnson’s comment, the report also mentions several other high-profile cases where comments by Tory MPs were racist and Islamophobic, including Lord Goldsmith’s 2016 campaign for London mayor, in which he accused Labour candidate Sadiq Khan of associating with extremists.

Lord Goldsmith acknowledged in the report that the mayoral campaign turned out to be “ugly and heavily racially charged” and that there would be no advantage to the Conservative Party being Islamophobic.

“We’re not a safe place for Islamophobes, but that’s not to say we don’t attract them,” says Goldsmith in the report.

Prof Singh called for the Tory leadership to publish an action plan within the next six weeks to set out how it will tackle the failings he found.

He also recommended the party produce and implement a new code of conduct for party members in the next six months.