“Why is it that with every London Mayoral election we manage to find a candidate worse than the last and manage to sink that little bit more into gutter politics” - Baroness Warsi, one of our parliamentary ambassadors and a former Conservative Peer, talking about the news that Conservative Party staff operated Islamophobic Facebook groups during the London election campaign.
This stuff has consequences. Throughout the election campaign Labour candidate Sadiq Khan expressed concerns for his safety and that of his family - a threat made real by the messages and content of the groups Conservative staff were operating.
No election should ever be conducted in a climate of such hate and intolerance. No politician should go out campaigning fearing for their life and the lives of their children.
As Baroness Warsi has said, it doesn’t need to be this way.
When people step up and step in, things can change. We need our leaders to call out this behaviour. We need all politicians to approach their campaigns with dignity and respect. And we need to promote an inclusive and confident vision for the future of Britain and its politics.
If you are as fed up as us, why not become a member of Compassion in Politics today? Together we’ll clean up our politics.