Boris Johnson will be investigated by the Tory Party over his controversial comments comparing women in burqas to letterboxes, it was today revealed.
The ex Foreign Secretary sparked a storm of controversy and was condemned by many party colleagues after making the comments, but has refused to apologise.
Sources in the Tory party clarified that the investigation has been triggered automatically after the party received a string of complaints about his words, which critics say risk fuelling hate crime.
The party will then decide whether to refer Mr Johnson to a panel to face a formal grilling over whether he did flout party rules.
If they find him at fault then Theresa May can decide what punishment to give her former minister – and could even kick him out of the Tory Party.
The row over the remarks has raged for four days with many Tory Remainers using it to stick the knife into Mr Johnson – a leading Brexiteer – and say he is not fit for office.
But several Tory Brexiteers have rallied to his defence and said that Mr Johnson is only expressing the views of people across the country and should no be muzzled
And senior British Imam Taj Hargey, from the Oxford Islamic Congregation, today defended the ex minister, who he said ‘did not go far enough’ because the burqa has ‘no Koranic legitimacy’ and should be banned in Britain.
Imam Taj Hargey, pictured last year on ITV’s This Mornibf with Sahar Al-Faifi, has backed Boris Johnson in the ongoing burka row and he believes it should be banned


Mr Johnson, who is on holiday, refused to back down, despite calls from critics including the prime minister to apologise. Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson has said wearing a veil is no different to wearing a crucifix.
And he said that the former Cabinet minister must ‘not apologise for telling the truth’ about the burka because it is ‘un-Muslim’ and a ‘hideous tribal ninja-like garment’.
Meanwhile, Britain’s most senior police officer Cressida Dick today said that the former minister ‘did not commit a criminal offence’ by making the comments.
Tory Remainers queued up to condemn Mr Johnson over the remarks yesterday, and Conservative peer Lord Sheikh said he had written to party bosses demanding an investigation.
Under Conservative rules, the party can investigate any member who is accused of beaching their code of conduct, which was unveiled late last year in the wake of the Westminster sex pest scandal.
This sets out how members of the Conservative party are expected to behave – including showing a commitment to ‘support equality of opportunity, diversity and inclusion’.
A Conservative party spokesman said: ‘The code of conduct process is strictly confidential.’
However, the party has made it clear that it is against a burqa ban or any restrictions on religious clothing.
It came after Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson slammed Mr Johnson and said wearing a veil is no different to wearing a crucifix.
And Dr Hargey told The Times the burqa and niqab are: ‘A nefarious component of a trendy gateway theology for religious extremism and militant Islam’.
The Imam has been a critic of the burqa and previously allowed men and women to pray together as well as discouraging Muslim-only schools.
He said: ‘The burqa and niqab are hideous tribal ninja-like garments that are pre-Islamic, non-Koranic and therefore un-Muslim.
‘Although this deliberate identity-concealing contraption is banned at the Kaaba in Mecca it is permitted in Britain, thus precipitating security risks, accelerating vitamin D deficiency, endorsing gender-inequality and inhibiting community cohesion.
‘Johnson did not go far enough. Britain must emulate France, Belgium, Austria, Bulgaria and Denmark in banning the burqa’.
Meanwhile, Met Police Commissioner Ms Dick, made it clear Mr Johnson has not broken any laws.
She said: ‘I know that many people have found this offensive.

Mr Johnson compared Muslim women who wear face-covering veils to letter boxes and bank robbers in his Daily Telegraph column
‘I also know that many other people believe strongly that in the whole of the article, what Mr Johnson appears to have been attempting to do was to say that there shouldn’t be a ban and that he was engaging in a legitimate debate.’
Asked what she made of the language the former foreign secretary used, Ms Dick told the BBC Asian Network: ‘Some people have clearly found it offensive.
‘I spoke last night to my very experienced officers who deal with hate crime and, although we have not yet received any allegation of such a crime, I can tell you that my preliminary view having spoken to them is that what Mr Johnson said would not reach the bar for a criminal offence.
‘He did not commit a criminal offence.’
Senior figures called for Mr Johnson to apologise or lose the Tory whip for saying fully-veiled Muslim women resembled letter boxes or robbers.
Ruth Davidson, who is seen as a potential rival to Mr Johnson for the party leadership, said questioning the burqa was like challenging the rights of Christians to wear a crucifix.
But Mr Johnson, who is on holiday, refused to back down. His supporters claim the row is being exploited by Tory Remainers angry at his position on Brexit.
The row began on Monday when the former foreign secretary wrote about the burqa in his Daily Telegraph column.
Mr Johnson said he was opposed to banning the garment in public places, but added: ‘It is absolutely ridiculous that people should choose to go around looking like letter boxes.
‘If a constituent came to my surgery with her face obscured, I should feel fully entitled to ask her to remove it.
‘If a female student turned up at school or at a university lecture looking like a bank robber then ditto.’
The remarks sparked outrage from Muslim groups and MPs who accused him of ‘fanning the flames of Islamophobia’.
Over the past three days Tory and Labour figures have taken to the airwaves to condemn Mr Johnson.
Yesterday, Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright stepped up the attacks, claiming it was wrong for Mr Johnson to describe the burqaa as ‘ridiculous and oppressive’. He told the BBC: ‘That’s the sort of language I think we should try to avoid using.’
Miss Davidson, who leads the Scottish Tories, said: ‘This wasn’t an off-the-cuff slip, he wrote a column, he knew exactly what he was doing and I think it crossed from being provocative and starting a debate and it became rude and gratuitous.
‘If you use the analogy of Christianity, would you ever write in the Daily Telegraph that you should have a debate about banning Christians from wearing crucifixes?

The Conservative chairman tweeted out a message of solidarity with those who have called for Mr Johnson to apologise
‘It’s the same argument but it’s in a different faith so why are the parameters different for one faith and not the other?
‘That’s where you start getting these questions of what constitutes anti-Semitism, what constitutes Islamophobia.
‘I agree with the point of his piece which was you shouldn’t ban the burqa, the niqab, the hijab – I don’t think we should ban it – but what he said was a gratuitously offensive way of saying it.’
Lord Sheikh, the founder and president of the Conservative Muslim Forum, demanded the party whip be withdrawn from Mr Johnson.
He said he had written to party chairman Brandon Lewis calling for severe action over the views.
‘In a way it is racist,’ the peer told Sky News. ‘These words are very inflammatory.
‘They will cause problems with race relations. It will encourage bigotry.’
And this morning civil society minister Tracey Crouch said women across the UK will feel very disappointed by the comments as she added her voice to those demanding he apologise.
She said: ‘I think his language was intentionally provocative.
‘What he was trying to say was that we should not oppress religious freedom, women should decide what they wear. I think that is something we all agree on.
‘He used very colourful language on purpose written down in an article and I think he was wrong to do so.
‘I support the Prime Minister in what she has said. He should apologise.
‘I think we need to get back to the issue abut protecting those religious freedoms and not tell women what to wear.’
She warned that Muslim women say they feel threatened after the controversial remarks.
Ms Crouch added: ‘The fact is we as politicians should be setting an example for people.
‘A few months ago I was quite critical of Boris for the way he looked while he went out running.
‘Now let’s be clear nobody looks good when they are out running, particularly a middle aged man like Boris.
‘And now I feel that level of respect I tried to show him and defend him in that debate has been cast aside because he is talking about what women wear in a particular expression of religious freedom, and I just think that is wrong.’
She added said that she is ‘very disappointed’ in Mr Jonson, adding: ‘I think there are lots of women who are. I think there are lots of people who are.
‘This is not about the issue wearing the burqa, its about the language he used and he used it in an intentional way because it was written down in an article.
Former party chairman Lord Pickles suggested he had been treated more lightly than other members might be.
Writing in The Guardian, Baroness Warsi said Mr Johnson’s comments ‘send out a message that Muslim women are fair game’.
‘She added: ‘What starts as useful targets for ‘colourful political language’ and the odd bit of toxic campaigning ends up in attacks on our streets.
‘He set out a liberal position, but he did it in a very ‘alt-right’ way.
This allowed him to dog-whistle: to say to particular elements of the party that he’s tough on Muslims.
‘Yet again, he’s trying to have his cake and eat it.
‘So, as much as Johnson thinks he’s being his usual clever self, he’s helping to create an environment in which hate crime is more likely.
‘Every time incidents like this occur in the party and there are no consequences, it sends out a clear message that you can get away with Islamophobia.’
But Nadine Dorries, a backbench Tory MP, said the backlash showed Mr Johnson’s rivals were terrified of him challenging the Prime Minister.
She told TalkRadio: ‘People who are outraged – who are utterly terrified – know that at some stage, any day soon, Boris may make a challenge for the leadership and the position in No 10. Yes, some people were offended but they are not people who would vote for Boris or ever vote Conservative anyway.’
The first opinion poll on the row showed backing for Mr Johnson.
According to the survey by Sky Data, 60 per cent believe it was not racist to compare Muslim women wearing burqas to bank robbers or letter boxes, while 33 per cent said it was.

Theresa May (pictured in Edinburgh yesterday) said that Boris Johnson should apologise for the remarks as they had clearly offended some people

Mr Johnson’s column came amid protests in Denmark (pictured) which has introduced a ban on face coverings

Denmark’s new face veil ban is likely to apply to the niqab and burqa – not the hijab and chador
Forty-eight per cent thought Mr Johnson should not apologise for his remarks, compared with 45 per cent who thought he should.
Mr Johnson wrote the newspaper article after Denmark became the latest European country to impose a ban on wearing burkas in public.
Almost 60 per cent of respondents said they supported enacting such a ban in the UK.
For the poll, Sky Data interviewed a representative sample of 1,649 customers by text message.
Tory MP Conor Burns, who was Mr Johnson’s parliamentary private secretary, said his former boss’s critics had an agenda.
He tweeted: ‘We are now into full bandwagon-jumping territory.
Seeing some of the tweets from colleagues desperate not to get left behind I can’t see they can even have read it.’