A week later and still no Islamophobia tsar
6 November 2026
It is over a week since Andy Burnham and Angela Rayner met Muslim community leaders around the Cabinet table in Downing Street to discuss "anti-Muslim hostility", bash political opponents for their use of language, and reportedly pledge to announce the appointment of an "anti-Muslim hostility" tsar by the end of the week.
As yet, no tsar has taken the crown.
When the previous Communities Secretary, Steve Reed, announced the Islamophobia definition in Parliament in March, he promised that this new de facto Islamic blasphemy law would be accompanied by a Special Representative on tackling "anti-Muslim hostility".
Ever since the Labour government confirmed that it would press ahead with its controversial plan to implement a non-statutory Islamophobia definition, and to impose it zealously on public bodies, private companies, and the charitable sector, the Free Speech Union has warned that it would have a chilling effect on free speech.
Ministers repeatedly sought to assure concerned parties, such as the Free Speech Union and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), that the definition would not silence our fundamental right to free speech, or our ability to legitimately debate, criticise, challenge, and mock Islam.
We have been proved consistently right. Activists and extremists have weaponised the definition to silence legitimate criticism of Islam at every opportunity presented to them.
The Shadow Justice Secretary, Nick Timothy, was reported by Labour MPs to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, branded "Islamophobic", and even faced calls for his sacking from the then Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, after he dared to criticise a mass Muslim public prayer event. Twenty-six Labour MPs reported Reform UK to the EHRC and urged it to investigate alleged Islamophobia, while Robert Jenrick and the comedian John Cleese were both referred to Prevent, the government's own counter-terrorism programme, for their comments about Islam.
It is an Islamic blasphemy law, introduced through the back door without parliamentary scrutiny, eighteen years after Parliament voted to abolish such laws. And it has been introduced by a government that is running scared of the Muslim voters who are abandoning it en masse for Zack Polanski's Green Party and pro-Gaza independent candidates.
Labour continues to throw red meat to placate extremists who threaten its electoral ambitions — and we are paying for it with our right to free speech.
On 27 October, the Prime Minister met Muslim community leaders in Downing Street and told them: "We want to counter any form of hatred, discrimination, Islamophobia, wherever we find it."
Sitting next to him in arguably the most consequential room in the country was Akeela Ahmed. Ahmed was a member of the working group, assembled by Angela Rayner, that drew up the definition; all five of its members have troubling links to Islamist organisations, including the Muslim Council of Britain and MEND.
In 2018, she called for the Islamophobia definition published by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims to have "legal power" so that it could be "implemented by the government and the police".
She later told MPs that Islamophobia "cannot simply be reduced to or restricted to hate crime", complaining that a columnist could write about a "Muslim problem" without it being treated as Islamophobia, "or simply being seen as free speech". Ms Ahmed also wanted the definition to cover "microaggressions during school runs".
Among the frontrunners for the role of Britain's first Islamophobia tsar is Sayeeda Warsi, the former Conservative Party co-chairman and now a crossbench peer. She has refused to distance herself from extremists, claiming that doing so would be "playing by the rules set by the racists", and has said that the term "Islamist" is "often a fig leaf used by Islamophobes to disguise their bigotry".
A week on, it appears that the process has stalled. Could that be because of a damning article in The Spectator, which seems to have done a more comprehensive job of vetting potential candidates than the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government?
Read more in The Spectator.
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