British Pakistanis quit Conservative Party after secretaries’ ‘racist’ attack

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UK Home Secretary and MP Suella Braverman. — Reuters/File

LONDON: A group of Pakistani doctors associated with the Conservative Party have claimed they have lost more than 200 members after British Home Secretary and MP Suella Braverman made bigoted and racist comments about Pakistani men linking them to sexual grooming gangs.

Braverman’s comments that British Pakistani men ‘hold cultural values ​​at odds with British values’ and are linked to the grooming scandal drew widespread criticism and senior Tory leaders accused her of peddling lies racists and Islamophobes to win the support of right-wing sections.

In a letter to the Home Secretary, Dr Ashraf Chohan, chairman and founder of the Conservative Friends of the National Health Service (NHS), told the Home Secretary that his organization had lost more than 200 members who are all doctors .

Dr Chohan told the secretary he feared more doctors would leave the group because they no longer associate themselves with a party whose secretary holds such racist views. Conservative Friends of the NHS have been raising funds and support for the Conservative Party for several years.

Dr Chohan wrote: “Since a statement from you as Home Secretary I have lost 200 members who are all medical doctors. Therefore only Sadiq Khan would be pleased with the statement you made last week latest on british pakistanis and can it be clarified only you meant delinquents and criminals but not every pakistani man please as we conservatives cannot afford to lose any more votes.

The letter to the secretary presents a fact sheet to Braverman on the contribution of the British of Pakistani origin. It says more than 1.2 million people in Britain are of Pakistani descent, many of whom work in the NHS; there are 10 Labor MPs and five Conservative MPs, the Mayor of London and the Scottish Prime Minister are of Pakistani origin; boxers and cricketers of Pakistani descent far outnumber any other ethnic community.

He further added that the majority of British Pakistanis are considered to be working class or middle class; 50% are employed; 25% self-employed; 20% of Pakistanis are in managerial or professional positions; 20% in intermediate professions; 25% work in routine or manual jobs; and 45% of British Pakistanis living in both Inner and Outer London are middle class.

The letter informs the secretary that her false account has hurt the feelings of millions of ethnic minorities and that she must apologize to Pakistanis and withdraw her comments.

Faith leaders, community groups, professional forums and activists have come together to issue an unprecedented condemnation of Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s “racist, Islamophobic, irresponsible and divisive” rhetoric linking exploitation child sexual abuse to Pakistanis.

The Home Secretary’s ‘racist and inflammatory comments’ from a series of interviews described as ‘inflammatory and confrontational rhetoric which is sensationalist and contradicts evidence from his own department’.

Pakistani organizations have been joined by British Nigerians, British Indians, British Bengalis and others in increasingly condemning the Home Secretary, saying the Secretary’s rhetoric overlooks the impact that “cuts in public sector and community services under the current government have had on young people”. increasing their vulnerability.

The British Pakistan Foundation (BPF) has called on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to distance himself from Braverman’s extremist rhetoric and apologize to British Pakistanis.

The Muslim Women’s Network and others who have testified and worked with Asian victims of grooming commented: “The Home Secretary’s approach of demonizing an entire community and lending credence to far-right narratives undermines the need to ensure that all victims of CSE are protected and that all perpetrators are brought to justice.”

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