British MP Sayeeda Warsi, the former co-chair of the UK Conservative Party, has expressed concern over the possibility of Environment Secretary Michael Gove becoming the country’s prime minister given his stance on UK Muslims.
“I just don’t even want to imagine it. I’ve sat in too many meetings, I’ve done everything from rolling my eyes, to thinking, gosh, thank God he’s not prime minister,” Warsi, a Muslim herself, told The Guardian, noting that any party that elected Gove as a leader “has got major problems”.
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She added that there were also other senior Tories who “raise concerns” about Gove over his views on Muslims in Britain.
“Ken Clarke has spoken about it, even his friends close to him. Even David Cameron has spoken about concerns about the way he views the world and the way he views certain communities”, Warsi said.
She spoke a few days after UK Prime Minister Theresa May promised to step down if the House of Commons approves her Brexit deal – something that never took place on March 29 during the MPs’ vote.
The development came amid reports about May being replaced with Gove in case of her possible resignation.
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He referred to a 2006 poll which revealed 46 per cent of British Muslims considering themselves Muslim first and British second and 12 per cent of these respondents aged between 18 and 24 arguing that suicide bombing could be justified in the UK.
Gove noted at the time that these views “reflect the influence of organised work by those sympathetic to an Islamist agenda in the UK”.
Critics, in turn, pointed to other polling evidence which reflected British Muslims’ overwhelming hostility of British Muslims to the the 7 July 2005 London bombings, often referred to as 7/7, which killed at least 52 people and injured 700 more.