Why Mohammed Amin resigned from the Conservative Party

When Theresa May announced that she was resigning as Leader of the Conservative Party, many candidates announced that they were standing for the position.

While I had policy disagreements with all of them, some major, some minor, there was only one candidate that I considered to be uniquely unqualified to be Conservative Party Leader. That was Boris Johson MP.

My concerns related not to matters of policy, but to his moral character, which I considered to be so deficient that I was not willing to be a member of political party led by him. I made that clear in a number of media interviews and on social media, stating that I would resign from the Conservative Party if Mr Johnson became its Leader.

The result of the leadership election was announced around noon on Tuesday 23 July. Shortly afterwards, I gave an interview to BBC Asian Network. That is only available for a limited period on BBC Sounds, but the BBC tweeted an extract which can be heard below.

My resignation letter was already prepared, and an hour or so later was in the post. It can be read below. I also gave an interview to Basit Mahmood of Metro News. He is a young journalist I have known for several years.

My resignation letter

The Rt. Hon. Brandon Lewis MP
Chairman of the Conservative Party
Conservative Campaign Headquarters
4 Matthew Parker Street
London
SW1H 9HQ

I joined the Conservative Party in the spring of 1983, and have now been a member for over 36 years. One of the most memorable days of my life was the Friday of the Party Conference in 1984 with everyone’s grim determination to not let the IRA stop us from continuing with the Conference, and Margaret Thatcher’s unforgettable finish to her speech “Democracy will prevail.”

Since then, six other people have led our Party. Each had many strengths and some weaknesses, but I was happy to follow each of them as our Leader. In particular, I had no doubts about their character, their probity, and their total commitment to putting the national interest before their personal interest.

Unfortunately, my fellow Party members have chosen Boris Johnson to be their next Leader. This is the first time I have been confronted with a Party Leader who I regard, for the two reasons given below, as morally unfit to be either Party Leader or Prime Minister, and I cannot support a Party led by such a person. Accordingly, I am writing to resign from the Conservative Party with immediate effect.

Firstly, I consider that Mr Johnson does not care whether what he is saying is true or false, as long as it satisfies his immediate audience. A specific example is that in January during a press conference at JCB he stated that during the 2016 EU Referendum Campaign he had never talked about Turkey being about to join the EU. It was disproved within hours with many video examples. I do not believe his memory failed him; rather that he will say anything that suits him at the time.

Secondly, I believe that Mr Johnson does not care about the harm he inflicts upon others, as long as his own career is advanced. For example, when he wrote his August 2018 Telegraph article comparing niqab and burqa wearing Muslim women to letterboxes and bank robbers, it was perfectly foreseeable to a man of his intelligence that it would lead to niqab wearing Muslim women being verbally abused on the streets, and in some cases physically assaulted, which is of course what happened. In my view this was of no concern to him, as long as his leadership credentials with the Conservative Party’s right wing were burnished by his article.

I could go on with other examples, but see no point in doing so. I will not be rushing to join another political party, as I expect Mr Johnson’s tenure to be short. I just hope our country does not suffer too much damage during his time as Prime Minister.

Addendum

Pre-resignation appearance on Jeremy Vine Show

The previous week, on 17 July 2019 I appeared on the Channel 5 Jeremy Vine Show. Linking to the show is not feasible as it is only available on their website for a limited period.

The previous day, the main story on the front page of The Guardian was "Boris Johnson claimed Islam put Muslim world 'centuries behind'" by Frances Perraudin. This concerned Boris Johnson's book chapter written in 2007 in which he painted Islam as being very backward. The previous week Frances had sent me the chapter, and I am quoted in her story.

Jeremy Vine also asked me about my plan to resign if Mr Johnson won the Conservative Party Leadership Election. Channel 5 later sent out the tweet below:

Post resignation story in Indian newspaper

The power of the internet to disseminate news is shown by the fact that my resignation was a story in the Hindi language Indian newspaper Sudarshan News. See the tweet below.

While the article linked in the tweet is in Hindi, it can be translated using Google Translate for example.

Post resignation appearance on i24NEWS

i24NEWS is an international news channel. On 24 July 2019 they interviewed me about the UK's new Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Subsequently they provided me with the clip below and permission to share it on my website and YouTube.

Destroying my Conservative Party membership card

I could not resist sharing on Twitter the ceremonial destruction of my membership card!

Reflection 7 July 2022 after Mr Johnson's resignation as Conservative Party Leader

Earlier today, Mr Johnson made a statement outside 10 Downing Street to resign as Conservative Party Leader. I don't need to repeat the unprecedented circumstances leading up to his resignation.

It reminded me that on 27 July 2019 I had made two forecasts in an interview on LBC with Maajid Nawaz, I had made two forecasts:

With hindsight, I was prescient about (1), but underestimated by a factor of six how long it would take to happen; three years instead of six months.

You can see a clip of the interview mentioned tweet embedded below on the LBC website.