This is a brief and non-exhaustive timeline of how the Tory Party has been plagued with Islamophobia for quite some time

I've tried to include all the things I can remember but I will have inevitably missed some out 🧵 2016 - The issue didn't start in this year but I've decided that it seems like a good starting point for this thread

Zac Goldsmith's London Mayoral campaign is repeatedly accused of being Islamophobic and of smearing Sadiq Khan

Goldsmith denies the claims

EXC: Labour's support among British Muslims has HALVED since 2019 according to a dramatic new poll

Labour: 43% (-43)
Conservative: 6% (-4)
Liberal Democrat: 6% (+5)
SNP: 3% (+1)
Green: 10% (+9)
Other: 4% (+4)
Undecided: 23% (N/A)

Survation/Labour Muslim Network poll It comes after criticism from the Muslim community over the party's handling of the war in Gaza with the new poll showing a significant decline in support from 86% down to 43%

EXC: Pressure piles on Keir Starmer - More than 150 Muslim Labour Councillors have written directly to the Labour leader demanding he call for a ceasefire in Gaza as backlash over his policy from within his party grows In a letter, which I’ve seen, more than 150 elected councillors *so far*, with the number of signatures still rising (!), have demanded Keir Starmer change his position, as he deals with growing tension within his party over his handling of the current situation in Gaza

NEW: I’m told the Labour leadership arranged an urgent meeting with council leaders last night about the party’s messaging on Gaza amid fears of pending resignations

At the heated meeting David Lammy and Keir Starmer’s chief of staff Sue Gray were told they only have days to act Lammy and Gray spoke to council leaders who demanded Starmer rows back on previous interview comments about potential war crimes in Gaza and has a firmer stance on condemning war crimes

NEW: I’ve seen messages sent from the Labour leadership telling its MPs and council leaders not to attend any Palestine related protests and demonstrations this weekend - regardless of what they are Chief Whip has sent a message around to MPs saying leadership’s ‘very strong advice is that colleagues should not under any circumstances attend any of these events.’

EXC: RAAC scandal continues – entire secondary school and sixth form in London forced to close immediately with 1800 students sent home with minimal warning School informed the Department for Education (DfE) it had RAAC BEFORE term started – which means for two weeks students were in a school which the government has only now deemed to be unsafe

I know it's 2023 but it is quite hard/almost impossible to grasp how many political stories broke over the course of 2022. Can't remember a year like it.

Here's a hilariously long thread on what happened (although I've probably missed some) and it's a mind-blowing read

1/🤯 12 JANUARY

Boris Johnson offers an apology for breaking lockdown rules but says he believed it was a work event.

THREAD

Was sitting in a cab stuck in traffic so got chatting to the driver.

The guy, roughly my dad’s age, was born in Bangladesh - which is where my parents are from.

I get excited ask him where exactly and he mentions this tiny little town in rural Bangladesh. Imagine my surprise, when by complete coincidence it happens to be where my Grandad, who passed away 8 years ago, was also born!!

To put it into context, this is a tiny town, roughly 6000 miles away from where we are in London. London, a city which has a population of 9 million.

NEW: Understand that all sailing staff at P&O Ferries have been made redundant with immediate effect.

The company will use an agency to keep their ferries running and current staff will be able to apply to the agency for work. The company, which operates major routes from the UK to the continent, said earlier that no services will be able to run for the 'next few hours'.

Teams on the ground will be arranging travel by other operators.

NEW: I understand the govt was warned today that some factories are potentially "weeks away" from closing because of the energy crisis

In a meeting with Energy Intensive industry leaders, the Business Sec was told rising energy costs has left many organisations in "dire straits" The meeting included representative bodies from, steel, chemicals, mineral products, paper, glass, ceramics and industrial gases.

The government was warned that many "cannot guarantee continuity of supply for days, weeks or months ahead" and intervention in some form is needed.

No10 refused to deny that @BorisJohnson thought Matt Hancock was "fucking hopeless" or that he considered replacing him with Michael Gove.

"I don't plan to get into the detail of what has been published," PM's official spox says. At today's briefing with No10 I counted 17 questions on the Cummings publication - No10 repeatedly said they would not be engaging.

Dominic Cummings has published what he says are WhatsApp conversations with @BorisJohnson where they are talking about Matt Hancock at the start of the pandemic: You can read his full post here - it includes several conversation screenshots, as well as some graphs from COBR documents dominiccummings.substack.com/p/the-pm-on-ha…

Over the past few days I’ve been speaking to several frontline NHS staff working in hospitals in London and surrounding areas and it seems that the situation is incredibly dire

-- THREAD -- One doctor in a London hospital tells me that following a huge spike in cases their hospital is struggling to cope and they now have no choice but to ration Oxygen: “No beds, no space, minimal Oxygen supplies. We’re having to ration Oxygen.”

EXC: Labour faces fresh racism allegations after new report finds more than one third of Muslim Labour members and supporters have witnessed Islamophobia from colleagues WITHIN the party.

Piece with @mahatir_pasha:
itv.com/news/2020-11-1… The report, conducted by the Labour Muslim Network, seen exclusively by @itvnews also found:

- 44% don't believe the party takes Islamophobia seriously.
- 48% don't have confidence in the party's complaints structures.
- 59% don't feel well represented by the party.

EXCLUSIVE: The Labour Party's data has been compromised and confidential information about thousands of donors has been accessed by cyber criminals, following the BlackBaud hack.

itv.com/news/2020-07-3… The party is among growing number of organisations to have their data breached following a cyber-attack on cloud computing provider BlackBaud.

I'm told the party was informed of the breach on July 16th and will be sending correspondence to all those effected later this week.

The scientists who have been advising the government about #COVID19 have started to speak more candidly about the situation. Here's a little thread of some of the things that have been said in the last few days or so:

1/6 Epidemiologist and SAGE member John Edmunds said the government was lifting the lockdown too fast. "The sort of messaging we're getting from the government seems to be to rush this."

2/6

No criminal investigation into Boris Johnson's relationship with Jennifer Arcuri as police watchdog finds no evidence indicating Mr Johnson, who was Mayor of London at the time, influenced the payment of any sponsorship money to Ms Arcuri.

But some interesting findings:

1/5 There was evidence to suggest that officers making decisions about sponsorship money and attendance on trade missions thought that there was a close relationship between Johnson and Arcuri and this influenced their decision-making.

2/5

EXC: A number of Labour staffers tried to stop the party’s workplace Unite branch sending letters of solidarity to Diane Abbott, Dawn Butler and Clive Lewis - all of whom were named in the leaked internal report as victims of racism and racial profiling itv.com/news/2020-04-1… Earlier today 100 or so Labour Party staff who are members of the workplace Unite branch held a meeting via Zoom to discuss how to respond to the leaked report which included alleged WhatsApp conversations that detailed racism and racial profiling against the named Labour MPs.

EXC: Leaked Labour report on antisemitism was commissioned by Jennie Formby and she managed a handful of Labour staffers who wrote it.

Report was given to Keir Starmer last week before it was leaked and he was told lawyers were advising against submission itv.com/news/2020-04-1… Formby, a close ally of Corbyn, worked on the report which was intended to serve as an annex to the full submission that is being sent to the EHRC.

It also involved a handful of others who worked in Labour's Governance and Legal Unit – most of whom are also Corbyn allies.

BREAK: PM announces a full UK lockdown to tackle #COVID19

You can only leave to:

* Travel to work but only if necessary
* Providing care or going to a medical appointment
* Shopping for basic necessities
* Exercising once a day

Police will have powers to enforce rules * All non-essential shops closed

* Gatherings of over 2 people not from same household will be dispersed

* All social events, including weddings, baptisms and other ceremonies, but excluding funerals cancelled

* Playgrounds, libraries, gyms and places of worship will be closed

NEW: Have spent the morning talking to several doctors across the country, in London, the North East and the Midlands about how the #NHS it dealing with #COVID19.

What I’ve been told is eye opening. Please give this thread a read:

1/6 Multiple doctors told me that me that #COVID19 tests are taking up to 5 days to come back. In that time patients cannot be kept in isolation because of lack of space.

So in that 3-5 day period, if they have Corona virus they are exposed to staff and other patients.

2/6