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Tory peer
accuses Nick Timothy of ‘instilling fear’ over Islamic prayers
Exclusive:
Tariq Ahmad says he has raised concerns with party leadership after shadow
justice secretary’s remarks
Ben Quinn
Political correspondent
Sat 21
Mar 2026 11.18 GMT
The
shadow justice secretary, Nick Timothy, has been accused by a Conservative peer
and former counter-extremism minister of “instilling fear” among Muslims with
his comments about public prayer.
British
Muslims were openly talking about leaving the Conservative party, added Tariq
Ahmad, who said he had raised his concerns with the party leadership and
expected action to be taken.
“I have
known Nick for a long time and am deeply disappointed by his divisive comments.
He needs to reflect carefully on his own words,” Lord Ahmad told the Guardian.
“If he is
aspiring to be lord chancellor, he has to stand up for the principles of
equality and justice before the law for all, that comes with that
responsibility.”
The
intervention by Ahmad, who served as a minister in three different departments
in the governments of Theresa May and David Cameron and has been a party member
for three decades, comes as Kemi Badenoch backed Timothy.
The
shadow justice secretary singled out an event in Trafalgar Square where the
mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and others prayed as part of an iftar, and claimed
that Islamic prayers taking place in public were intimidating and un-British.
Nigel
Farage has also commented, with Muslim leaders condemning the Reform UK
leader’s call to ban public prayer by Muslims in the UK as bigoted, and warning
of a “growing tide of hate” after Badenoch questioned whether the events fitted
“within the norms of British culture”.
Ahmad
said he had started to encounter anti-Muslim hostility on the streets,
something that he had believed was consigned to the past.
“It’s
ironic that Nick has sought to defend what he said by referring to British
values, because it is exactly the values of choice, of standing up for
inclusion and freedoms, that have attracted people like me to the Conservative
party,” he said.
“Michael
Howard was a great mentor to me and he said the party has been and should
always be one for all Britons. That is something that we always need to
reflect, not just in our policies but also how we present ourselves.”
Ahmad
compared Timothy’s comments to previous remarks by Robert Jenrick and Suella
Braverman about diversity and multiculturalism when they were still in the
party.
“Robert
has now left and I remember having a debate with him. Indeed, even a run-in
with him, and it takes a lot to get me going, when he made comments on how
people should be arrested for shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’,” he said.
“Nick’s
comments about the iftar, the call to prayer and Islam were ill informed and
he, and others, need to educate themselves before they make pronouncements like
he has.
“The call
to prayer is not about domination. Nick should know this. I have known him for
a long time when I was minister for countering extremism and he was a special
adviser to Theresa May. No one should be trying to scapegoat any community in
this way.
“We have
had debates about policy and one of the biggest challenges we face is how do
you define terms when dealing with issues such as those posed by extremism,
whilst allowing for people to discuss things in an open and respectful way. But
Nick singling out the act of public prayer by Muslims as being about
domination, is, simply put, wrong. I think he is instilling fear. He is not
just expressing an opinion.”
Timothy
defended himself in an article in the Daily Telegraph, arguing that the Islamic
prayer in Trafalgar Square was a repudiation of other faiths.
“In a
pluralistic society like ours, people are free to believe in the unique truth
of Islam if they choose. They are free to proclaim it at home, in mosques, and
in communities that gather for that purpose,” he said.
“But when
such declarations are projected into shared civic spaces – including monuments
of national history and identity such as Trafalgar Square – the line between
freedom of religion and the imposition of religious rituals blurs.”
Ahmad, a
businessman who first joined the Conservative party in 1994 and became a life
peer in 2011, also spoke candidly, in a similar way to comments recently by the
health minister Zubir Ahmed, of how everyday racism had again cropped up in his
life.
“Recently,
racial slurs have been directed at me in a way that I cannot remember having
happened for a long time. It’s unacceptable and no community should live in
fear of that,” he said.
Ahmad
said he had raised his concerns, adding: “Ultimately, Kemi has been someone who
has deep insights and experiences from her own background and she knows that
any party which aspires to be of the mainstream needs to be inclusive of people
of all faiths. We as a nation move forward by working with, and for all, our
communities.”
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