A Tory candidate has avoided disciplinary action, after he accused his Sikh election rival that he was “talking through his turban,” despite PM Boris Johnson insisting perpetrators of racism would be chucked out “first bounce.”
Philip Dunne, the Conservative candidate for Ludlow in Shropshire aimed his offensive remarks at Labour rival Kuldip Sahota during general election hustings on Wednesday evening.
The senior ex-minister, who was part of a select group of Tories to attend their manifesto launch on Sunday, has since apologized. However, Conservative HQ have not handed down any punishment, even though Johnson has insisted his party operates a zero-tolerance policy against members who are found guilty of racism.
Also on rt.com ‘PM May burying head in sand over Tory institutional Islamophobia’ – Conservative peerThe unsavory incident comes after the PM rejected claims from the Muslim Council of Britain that his party had approached the issue of Islamophobia with "denial, dismissal and deceit.”
"What we do in the Tory party is when anybody is guilty of any kind of prejudice or discrimination against another group then they're out first bounce," Johnson insisted.
It would appear that the hardline rhetoric isn’t currently being backed up with action, with the 61 year-old Conservative free to fight in the election on December 12.
Sahota has spoken about the treatment he was subjected to by Dunne in the debate, revealing that he was “shocked and deeply hurt that someone who was an MP for 14 years would make such a derogatory comment about the Sikh faith.”
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