Grapevine

Sayeeda Warsi quits Conservatives over UK party’s lurch to ‘far right’

Former co-chair criticises party’s ‘hypocrisy and double standards in its treatment of different communities’.

Britain’s first Muslim cabinet minister has resigned from the opposition Conservative Party, saying it has moved too far to the right.

Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, who sits in the House of Lords, announced her decision on Thursday, saying that it was “a reflection of how far right my Party has moved and the hypocrisy and double standards in its treatment of different communities”.

“I am a Conservative and remain so but sadly the current Party are far removed from the Party I joined,” said Warsi, who made history by becoming the country’s first Muslim cabinet minister under former Prime Minister David Cameron and formerly served as co-chair of the Conservatives.

It is with a heavy heart that I have today informed my whip and decided for now to no longer take the @Conservatives whip.