0:00
who opened up on a boring anti-Muslim discrimination that she faced in politics
0:05
Let's have a listen to that interview. You lost your job in 2020
0:13
And in January 2022, you gave an interview and you said that when you were removed from your position
0:21
you were told that your Muslimness was raised, was an issue. Now, the chief whip at the time, he disputed that
0:31
So I guess rather than going over that, I want to ask you if you think there is anti-Muslim prejudice in politics
0:38
Well, that happened to me. And the reality is that you can lose your job in politics for multiple reasons
0:43
Right. I never expected to be told that my faith was an issue
0:48
It's not something that I'd, you know, got wonderful colleagues in my party
0:53
it came as a huge surprise. And then what unfolded was completely unnecessary
0:58
I wouldn't want anyone else to go through that again. So for me, it was important that I challenged it
1:04
But the reality is, I feel that if I constantly have to comment on it
1:08
it ends up defining me. And fundamentally, it should be defining the people
1:12
the protagonists who use their power at the time to try and diminish who I am So the reality also is that I am still here and I have continued with my career
1:23
There's also, you know this as well, having been a Member of Parliament, there is a saying, no good deed goes unpunished in politics
1:31
For me, what happened was so abhorrent. I did not want it to happen to another colleague ever again
1:37
And because I took a stand, I'm hoping that it won't. I also don't think it was just about my faith
1:43
I think there's an element of misogyny involved and an element that if you are, there was a complete power imbalance
1:52
But I wasn't going to let it pass. It's now done. And the protagonist should be explaining their actions and we should leave it there
1:58
I think the real challenge that we have in politics is how do we incentivize people to do the right thing
2:03
And how do we ensure when people do do the right thing that they aren't admonished for doing that as well
2:09
And, you know, people are and I think the biggest challenge that we have in politics is providing the space for for women and then working class people to come forward
2:20
Because we don't naturally have those networks and power bases when we get to Parliament
2:26
So we're working as individuals. And then you're so busy in your constituency
2:30
You know you hang out with your MPs closest to you regionally or MPs that you campaign with But we not linked into those other power networks No should we be And I think that is a big challenge And politics still needs to be cleaned up on that front I think
2:44
Gosh, yeah. How do you do it? I mean, I was looking at I just looked at social media just to see what people say about you
2:50
when, I mean, some people are very nice about you, but there's absolute racism on there
2:54
There's absolutely questions about whether you, as a Muslim person, should even be in our chamber
3:02
I mean, it's quite disgusting what I've just read before we sat down
3:06
Well, that was the budget experience. I think the, I mean, I've been an MP since 2015
3:12
And when you are a Conservative Member of Parliament, especially if you're a female Conservative Member
3:19
of parliament, I always expected a little bit of pushback. And politics is pretty brutal
3:24
And that was fun. What I didn't expect was so much commentary about my heritage
3:31
my faith or my race. But I suppose I've got a thick skin over the years
3:38
And just this week, I was at an event where we had 2,000 young people
3:42
studying politics at A-level, came on asking questions of different types of MPs
3:47
And then a young chap called Darren said he seen my Twitter seen people commenting about me on Twitter And a lot of that was abusive about me being a female and you know not being not being white Brit as it were
4:03
And he said that he doesn't want to enter the space. And I think that's the worst thing that can happen
4:08
So my job is to continue going forward and ensuring that more people that think that Parliament and the green benches and SW1 isn't for them
4:16
is saying it is for you. And there are so many of us here that will be super supportive
4:20
once you get here. But if we vacate that space, we'll have people representing us
4:25
and our views and our ambitions that have no shared experiences with us
4:30
And for me, fundamentally, that is somebody that, you know, even though I am a Sussex MP
4:34
I'm also a Brummie. I grew up in Birmingham in a very working class area
4:39
where people's opportunities were incredibly limited. And I want to make sure
4:44
that those people are fully represented so their ambitions can be understood by government
4:50
and those policies can relate to their lives as well. We can't vacate the space and we're all here on merit
4:56
People like myself who have to just have a huge amount of resilience, we're not going to be pushed out to make space
5:02
for people that are undeserving. Very well, Paul. Okay
