Boris Johnson’s ethics adviser has been called in to lead the investigation into allegations of Islamophobia against new Commons leader Mark Spencer.
The former chief whip confirmed that Lord Geidt is probing claims by Tory MP Nusrat Ghani that Spencer said her “Muslimness was raised as an issue” by colleagues when she lost her job as transport minister.
Spencer has strenuously denied Ghani’s claims, which he said were false and “defamatory”.
Last night he was moved from his role as chief whip to Commons leader in Boris Johnson’s mini reshuffle — a move that was described as “completely inappropriate” by Labour.
Asked about the Ghani investigation in an interview with BBC Radio Nottingham, Spencer said it was a “bit rough when you’re accused of something of that nature” but that he had to “keep my mouth shut”.
“It’s a bit rough not being able to defend yourself until the results of that investigation come forward,” he said.
“But you know I’ve just got to keep my mouth shut, present the facts to Lord Geidt who’s doing the investigation and once that’s concluded I think we’ll be able to have a fairly open conversation about that.”
Spencer was moved from his role as chief whip following a torrid few weeks for the prime minister, in which a number of backbenchers either submitted letters of no confidence or publicly criticised his behaviour.
As chief whip he was also held responsible for the botched government attempt to protect Owen Paterson over a lobbying row.
That led to Paterson quitting as an MP and the Lib Dems subsequently winning his seat at the resulting by-election.
Meanwhile, the Tory whips office has also been accused of threatening to withhold constituency funding for MPs who had been critical of Johnson, an allegation Spencer refused to comment on.
Elsewhere in the BBC Nottingham interview, Spencer was reminded that he told the station in December, as the partygate scandal was emerging, that he was “assured everybody in that building played by the rules” and that the prime minister “will not have lied about any parties”.
“It doesn’t really stack up looking back now, does it?” the host asked.
“I think it does actually,” Spencer said. “Again the police are looking at this.”
“We know there were parties... we’ve seen pictures!” the presenter interjected.
Spencer replied: “Clearly people were having a drink, I’ve done that. I’ve had a drink of alcohol during Covid.”
Spencer went on to suggest that the public had moved on with partygate and were instead only interested in “real-world” issues such as the cost of living crisis and the NHS backlog.