Tory candidates suspended over racist posts

TWO Conservative local election candidates have been suspended for endorsing racist and inflammatory social media posts.

Racist posts include calling Quran an "evil book" and referring to Muslims as "bin bag wearing individuals." One Tory supporter is said to have called for a boycott of Muslim-owned shops and another comment labelled the religion’s followers “sub-human” and “cockroaches”.

These suspensions come at a time when the Conservative party is under immense pressure over its handling of Islamophobia.

Mohammed Amin, chairman of the Conservative Muslim Forum, is calling for an inquiry into Islamophobia.

He told the Guardian: “The serious question the Conservative party has to ask itself is: what is it about the image that it is projecting that causes people with these views to think they belong in the Conservative party?

“At the moment, it’s in complete denial about that question. It believes that tackling people one by one as they are exposed that somehow the problem will go away and I do not believe it will.

"It needs to hold a serious, independent inquiry both into its processes for dealing with issues like this and whether they are adequately transparent, and the even more fundamental question about the image the party is projecting to the British people, which makes people with racist and bigoted religious views believe that the Conservative party is the party for them. The people posting on Facebook certainly do believe that.”

A Conservative party spokesman said: “The large majority of these cases involve people who are not members of the Conservative party, and of the rest, many are historic cases that have already been dealt with. Where we have found evidence of discrimination or abuse, swift action has been taken.”