Conservative members of the European Parliament recently decided to give their backing to the far right Hungarian autocrat, Viktor Orbán. They were the only centre right party to back Orbán, who has been accused of both antisemitism and Islamophobia amongst other things.
But we shouldn’t be surprised. The Tories have a long history of racism in their ranks. They’ve recently ignored Baroness Sayeeda Warsi’s calls to hold an inquiry into the rampant Islamophobia in their ranks, Zac Goldsmith’s campaign to become London mayor was dripping with Islamophobia, Boris Johnson’s political and journalistic career has been characterised by racist bilge and that’s before we even get into the likes of Margaret Thatcher and Enoch Powell. The Conservative party fans bigotry and divides communities in order to gain political power. It always has done and, I think, always will do.
