Tory peer Lord Sheikh, who has called for the party to remove the whip from Boris, is being promoted far and wide by pro-Remain news organisations. Sheikh is the founder of the Conservative Muslim Forum. He is, as they say, problematic… 

Sheikh is on the record publicly praising the controversial group the Al Muntada Trust. The group faced scrutiny after fears were raised that its funds had ended up with Boko Haram extremists. It has been linked to a series of anti-Semitic, homophobic and extremist preachers. In the video above, Lord Sheikh calls the group “marvellous”…

Then there is Lord Sheikh’s praise for the East London Mosque. Sheikh said:

“I would certainly commend the Mosque and Centre: not only do you provide a place of worship, but you provide a holistic service and more importantly the empowerment for women.”

Once again, the East London Mosque has well-known and established links to a series of misogynistic and homophobic speakers.

It gets worse. Lord Sheikh has links to the hugely controversial Interal charity, which was investigated by the Charity Commission over its links to Hamas.

Sheikh is a fan of Assad, calling him “an extremely well-informed, intelligent and articulate person who cares about the plight of the Palestinian refugees”. Sheikh went on a trip to meet Assad alongside Jeremy Corbyn and Jenny Tonge. Shouldn’t alarm bells be ringing here?

Under Sheikh’s tenure, the Conservative Muslim Forum produced a series of extremely hostile statements towards Israel and Zionists. The group is quoted as saying:

“An incoming Conservative Administration must appreciate that a pro-zionist [sic] attitude will not bode well with many. Pro-zionist statements only damage relationships with Muslims nationally and internationally. Thus, statements like the one made by David Cameron on 12th June 2007 can be too easily interpreted as unbalanced and weighted towards only the zionist and Israeli positions.”

Some of Lord Sheikh’s links are more the sort of thing we could expect from Jeremy Corbyn back in the day. Not sure he is a serious voice in Tory circles by any stretch of Remainers’ imaginations. Given the above, perhaps it is him CCHQ should be having a word with about keeping the whip…