Politicians and anti-racism campaigners have reacted with disgust after a Conservative MP blamed immigrants, Muslims and ethnic minorities for a spike in Britain\u2019s Covid cases.<\/p>\n
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Politicians and anti-racism campaigners have reacted with disgust after a Conservative MP blamed immigrants, Muslims and ethnic minorities for a spike in Britain\u2019s Covid cases.<\/p>\n
Craig Whittaker told a radio talk-show that a lack of understanding of the seriousness of the virus by Muslim and ethnic members of his northern constituency were to blame.<\/p>\n
The comments came after the British government imposed an emergency lockdown on four million people across much of the north of England.<\/p>\n
The MP for the Calder Valley, in West Yorkshire, said the \u201cvast majority\u201d of people breaking social-distancing rules were from minority and Muslim communities.<\/p>\n
“If you look at the areas where we’ve seen rises and cases, the vast majority – but not by any stretch of the imagination all areas – it is the BAME [Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic] communities that are not taking this seriously enough,” Whittaker told LBC radio.<\/p>\n
The comments brought condemnations from many, including the Labour MP Charlotte Nicholas, who represents Warrington North.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is just racism, pure and simple, and is not borne out by the evidence,\u201d said Ms Nicholas.<\/p>\n
The anti-racism campaigner Iman Atta called on Whittaker to apologies and withdraw his comments, and for the Conservative Party to investigate the incident.<\/p>\n
The new social-distancing measures in northern England, which has a high proportion of Muslim residents, were hastily imposed mere hours before Eid Al Adha.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Politicians and anti-racism campaigners have reacted with disgust after a Conservative MP blamed immigrants, Muslims and ethnic minorities for a spike in Britain\u2019s Covid cases. Politicians and anti-racism campaigners have reacted with disgust after a Conservative MP blamed immigrants, Muslims and ethnic minorities for a spike in Britain\u2019s Covid cases. Craig Whittaker told a radio …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":21311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_108372464460192_245495985553329":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[831,1584,531],"class_list":["post-9503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-british","tag-coronavirus","tag-muslims"],"yoast_head":"\n