Perhaps it is not even a surprise that Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, a former model Conservative, has resigned from the party, citing growing Islamophobia and its drift towards the far-right. It was a loss for the party because she was among the first Muslim women to be appointed as a cabinet minister by David Cameron. She was eventually forced out of the party for supporting the acquittal of a teacher who had, apparently in protest at the shooting of Trayvon Martin, displayed a satirical banner that included racial abuse. 

Her departure highlights the increasing intolerance of the Conservative Party, a worrying sign for the future.

Once chairwoman of the Conservative Party and member of Cameron’s cabinet, Warsi is the epitome of Tory values: family-orientated, hardworking, and honest. However, her moral call for an end to Israel’s war on Gaza in 2014 proved “morally indefensible,” embarking her on the road away from the party when Cameron refused to criticize the disproportionate measures taken by Israel, and people lost their lives in numbers above 2,100 Palestinians killed. 

On many counts, such developments only pushed Warsi further into the margins. The perennial increase in draconian policies of the government-the latest example being the migration deportation scheme to Rwanda-only widened the gulf. Yet, Warsi clung to hope, thinking she could influence from within. What opened the gulf is the present Gaza crisis and the partisan support of the Conservative Party for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government.

The final insult came when school teacher Marieha Hussain was acquitted of charges of racial abuse for carrying a banner portraying the duo of Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman as coconuts on a peace march. “Coconut,” the street referent to one perceived as a traitor to their race, was pronounced not to be a racial slur by the courts and was therefore sanctified in the wake of the verdict by Warsi. In response, the Conservative Party opened an internal inquiry into Warsi’s activities, demanding she resiliate—retract her support. She refused to do it.

Warsi described the party’s actions as a “secret retrial,” revealing that she wasn’t even informed of her accuser’s identity. “I was not prepared to accept this,” she stated in her resignation, criticizing the attempt of the party to silence her. In the case of Hussain, with racism experts testifying one after another that “coconut” is not a racial epitaph, this laid bare the hollow canvassing of the prosecution. This did not stop the Tories from investigating Warsi for siding with the court decision.

Former home secretary and Tory leadership contender James Cleverly was at the forefront of the detractors who opposed Warsi, accusing her of not being able to recognize harm to “other black colleagues.” Ironically, Cleverly backed a government known for its rhetoric about migrants and its plan to deport them to Rwanda. During his tenure in office, Cleverly never opposed those racist policies, yet he turns around on Warsi for having just supported the verdict of a judge.

The Conservatives’ treatment of Warsi represents a swift fall into far-right positions, reminiscent of Germany’s AfD or France’s National Rally. Once a faithful Tory who could quickly have flourished under previous Conservative administrations, she resigns, underlining how the party has become a citadel of bigotry and no longer a political home for respectable folk.

Her exit serves as a stern message about the party’s increasing radicalism. She deserves respect for standing up for that.