At this week’s Mayor’s Question Time, I asked Sadiq Khan a straightforward but urgent question: why is there still no dedicated Islamophobia training across London’s public institutions?
It’s a question I asked not just as an Assembly Member, but as a Muslim woman who knows what it feels like to live in Britain right now. Recently online, I’ve been told I’m an immigrant who doesn’t belong here. At a street surgery, I was told all Muslims should be killed. At London Bridge station, I was called a Paki and told I should go home.
Islamophobia has been normalised in politics, in the media and in daily life and it now stands at record and alarming levels. Muslims in Britain today live with legitimate fear of being harassed in the street, targeted online, or being viewed with suspicion simply for existing.
And that fear isn’t paranoia. It is rooted in an ugly and worsening reality. The horrific stabbings in Southport last year didn’t just shock the nation—they unleashed something darker. We witnessed terrifying mob violence targeting asylum seekers, Muslims, and anyone perceived as other.
One year on, little has improved. Britain remains a tinderbox. The conditions that led to those outbreaks of hate are not only still here, they are deteriorating by the day. Meanwhile, the silence from much of the political establishment has been deafening.
Worse still, those in power have not helped calm the situation – they’ve inflamed it. When the Prime Minister uses hostile rhetoric about immigrants, it legitimises the very forces that seek to dehumanise entire communities. Meanwhile, GB News and the Reform Party are given free rein to pump conspiracy theories into the mainstream, with barely any challenge.
All of this is happening while many of our public institutions remain fundamentally unequipped to respond. That’s why the absence of Islamophobia training in key London bodies, including the Met Police and the London Fire Brigade, is so dangerous. This isn’t just a symbolic omission, it’s a critical operational failure.
And it’s dangerous for two reasons.
First, it sabotages efforts to address institutional racism. Dame Louise Casey’s review of the Met was clear: change must be structural and cultural. Similarly, Nazir Afzal’s report into the London Fire Brigade revealed deeply embedded prejudices.
If Islamophobia isn’t properly understood or acknowledged as a distinct and systemic form of discrimination, how can those recommendations ever be meaningfully implemented?
Second, it leaves frontline workers without the tools they need to protect the communities they serve. If police officers can’t recognise anti-Muslim hate, don’t understand how it spreads, and aren’t trained to respond effectively, then they can’t do their jobs and public trust continues to erode.
To his credit, the Mayor has acknowledged the threat and has himself been on the receiving end of appalling Islamophobic abuse. City Hall analysis shows abuse targeting the Mayor has doubled since the violence last summer, in line with national trends—and indeed my own personal experience.
Sadiq Khan has said he wants London to stand strong as a bastion against hate and a beacon of hope. Such rhetoric is welcome, but we desperately need that principle translated into practice.
That’s why I’m calling on the Mayor to mandate proper Islamophobia training across the entire GLA family. Because unless we act decisively now, we risk more than losing public confidence, we risk losing lives.
We in the Liberal Democrats have always stood up for equality and against hate. Ed Davey has consistently championed British Muslims and shown real leadership on this issue. Our party was the first to accept the APPG definition of Islamophobia, setting a clear standard for others to follow. We have also been pushing the government to appoint an Islamophobia advisor, recognising the urgent need for leadership and accountability.
It is disappointing that Labour is now dragging its feet on agreeing an accepted definition of Islamophobia. This lack of action sends the wrong message at a time when clarity and solidarity are needed most.
That’s why I will be hosting an event with Ed Davey to celebrate Eid and the contributions of the Muslim community on 16 July (tickets available here: Lib Dem Eid Celebration (With Ed Davey ) – Liberal Democrats – Tickets).
Now, more than ever, we must stand together, take real action, and ensure that every institution in Britain is equipped to confront Islamophobia head-on. The Liberal Democrats will continue to lead the way, but we need others to step up too. Our future as a fair, just and peaceful society depends upon it.
* Hina Bokhari is the Liberal Democrat Leader on the London Assembly and the most prominent elected Muslim within the Liberal Democrats.
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8 Comments
I am pleased that Hina has organised the Eid Party with Ed Davey, and have booked for me and my wife to attend. I agree with her that the language about Muslims and Islam that has crept into our public debate is deplorable.
As she mentions above, our Party has adopted the APPG definition of Islamophobia. I wish we hadn’t done that, and should un-adopt it as I consider the definition seriously flawed as I explain in more detail in my piece at the link below. That article also analyses all the previous attempted definitions in the UK.
https://www.mohammedamin.com/Community_issues/Abandon-the-word-Islamophobia.html
The Government is taking the issue seriously. That is why in February the Government launched a working group to provide it with a working definition of Anti-Muslim Hatred/Islamophobia.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-launches-working-group-on-anti-muslim-hatredislamophobia-definition
The creation of the working group indicates that, like me, the Government considers the APPG definition inadequate. I am also pleased to see the Government using the term Anti-Muslim Hatred which I think should displace the term Islamophobia.
Of course, the comments quoted are abominable, frightening, cruel and wrong.
The words: “Britain remains a tinderbox” however are unjustified.
I agree with Ruth Clark. My own view, admittedly as a white person, is that racism was more of a problem when I was young, decades ago, and what has changed is that social media now gives people with unpleasant views a platform. I would suggest that although a few extremely nasty messages can no doubt be very difficult to cope with, it would be wrong to think that if, say, five people out of an adult population of 45 million express their feelings of inadequacy by promoting hatred the UK has become a tinderbox.
Andy Daer 21st Jun ’25 – 5:10am….I agree with Ruth Clark. My own view, admittedly as a white person, is that racism was more of a problem when I was young, decades ago, and what has changed is that social media now gives people with unpleasant views a platform..
At almost 82yo I can remember the racism of the 1950/60s .. It was mainly, apart from a few inner city areas, an ‘unconscious’, ‘universal’, racism based almost entirely on colour; the darker their skin the more racist the attitude..
In my experience that racism has largely been replaced by a ‘targeted’ racism aimed at one specific group of one specific religion.
Brace yourself and read the articles and comment pages of the Daily Express and Mail..
The BNP, UKIP and Reform have encouraged the closet racists to come out and spew their poisonous hatred and to underestimate the effect is unwise. Couple that with the hatred between both sides in the Middle East and I think Hina is if anything understating the problem. Social media has exacerbated the problems. Like expats I grew up in an era before laws were enacted to try and ban racism and I remember it well. Racism, Islamophobia and anti semitism were driven underground but now they’re back and we need to tackle them
I think we also need to look into whether the training is effective.
I think a lot of people know that in order to keep their job they need to say the “right” thing. But once they have done the training they can revert back to how they were before. I do not know what the solution is to that.
It is worrying that there is dog whistling by political parties on the right, but my objection is to the word tinderbox, which implies that the conditions exist for modern British society to go up in flames metaphorically, or perhaps literally in some places. I don’t think that is the case. In some ways, having the dangerous ideas about racial superiority more in the open makes them easier to deal with.
Regarding the Middle East, when you observe government efforts to criminalise legitimate protest, the bigger concern is the damage to democracy. Most people support the Palestinian right to life and freedom, which has nothing to do with race.
@Hina, you might not have got the responses your expected, but I hope you will take heart from those of us who think racism is on the retreat n this country. The ‘Southport Riots’ were met with stern responses in the courts, and in Bristol, where I live, the mob was turned back by a determined crowd of anti-racists, and that on a national scale, the attempted promotion of an anti-immigrant message was converted into the opposite: that if you use violence against foreigners you are going to end up in prison, and I think that truthfully expressed the will of the majority of British people.