Sir Keir Starmer has called for the sacking of a senior Conservative who said Muslims praying in Trafalgar Square was an “act of supremacy”.
The Prime Minister described Nick Timothy’s comments as “absolutely appalling” and told Tory leader Kemi Badenoch she should condemn his words and “sack him” as shadow justice secretary.
Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir said he had never heard the Conservatives call for anything other than Muslim incidents, leading him to conclude that “the Tory Party has a problem with Muslims”.
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But Ms Badenoch defended her shadow minister, saying he was “protecting British values”.
Mr Timothy posted a video of hundreds of Muslims praying in Trafalgar Square on Monday evening as they celebrated iftar, the meal that breaks the Ramadan fast.
London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan hosted the event, and was seen praying with others and giving a speech, in which he celebrated the Jews, Christians, Hindus and atheists who joined him.
Mr Timothy, who was Theresa May’s chief of staff when she was prime minister, wrote: “Many people are too polite to say this but mass ritual prayer in public places is an act of dominance.
“The azan (call to prayer) – which declares that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is his messenger – when called in a public place, constitutes a declaration of dominance.”
He said that “these rituals” should be performed in mosques “but they are not welcome in our public spaces and shared institutions”.
He said, “I’m not saying that everyone in Trafalgar Square last night is Islamist. But the dominance of public spaces is directly related to Islamist ideology.”
“This was an act of domination and therefore division. This should not happen again.”
‘London will always be a place for everyone’
Sir Sadiq hit back at Mr Timothy by posting pictures of Monday night’s gathering along with pictures of crowds in Trafalgar Square celebrating Christian Easter, Hindu Diwali, Sikh Vaisakhi and Jewish Hannukah.
“London is and always will be a place for everyone. #UnityOverDivision,” she wrote on X.
Former Conservative Attorney General Dominic Grieve described Mr Timothy’s comments as “a very strange post from a Conservative who says he believes in freedom of expression under the law and is the chief spokesperson for the Free Speech Union”.
She asked whether he was advocating “making discriminatory laws targeting Muslims”.
‘Stop fanning the flames of division’
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy told Mr Timothy to “stop fanning the flames of division” as he also pointed out that Sikhs, Jews, Hindus and Christians “have all been invited by Sadiq Khan to celebrate the religious festival in Trafalgar Square”.
Labor Party deputy leader Lucy Powell called it “an extreme reaction”, as she said people of all faiths working together was “the real Britain, not the desperate hatred being peddled here by a prominent Tory”.
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support for timothy
But Mr Timothy was defended by Tory colleagues. Shadow Transport Secretary Richard Holden told Sky News that he believed mass prayer in public places could be an act of domination “for all sorts of different groups in some circumstances”.
Conservative Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake wrote on Twitter: “We support Nick Timothy 100%.”
Mr Timothy reiterated his point on Wednesday and accused people of “deliberate misunderstanding”, which he said “says everything about the people behind the definition of Islamophobia”.
He said the issue was not that Muslims gathered in Trafalgar Square, but rather that “collective prayer in public – in this case next to a church – is an act of dominance”.
He said, “So is the public call to prayer, which clearly refuses to include Christianity among other religions – that’s the difference.”
He accused Mr Grieve and Labor MPs of failing to “engage with substance”, and said that “people like Dominic can’t figure out why the ideological world they built is falling apart”.
