Tory donor Maurizio Bragagni's 'foreign Muslim' comments condemned

Maurizio Bragagni argued that the UK is becoming more divided

The Conservative Party has distanced itself from comments about "foreign Muslims" and immigration by one of its major donors.

Maurizio Bragagni, who has given £650,000 to the party, said Sharia law was the "de facto law" in some English towns and cities, in an online article.

And he described London as "worse than any African metropolis".

A Tory spokesman said the party "in no way whatsoever condones these unacceptable comments".

But Labour Party chairwoman Anneliese Dodds said: "It's not enough for the Conservatives to condemn these disgraceful remarks.

"They need to explain why they're holding onto so much money from someone who disparages this country in such an appalling way."

Mr Bragagni has not responded to requests for comment.

'Muslim-run urban areas'

In an 850-word article for Italian news site Saturno Notizie, published last month, he criticises the Labour Party for having an "anti Judeo-Christian identity, which allows Islamic groups to feel at home, where they can find free space for their true political ideology".

He adds: "A subsidy state which supports large families, which gives houses to migrants who are themselves the majority, in short destroys western capitalism and individual freedom.

"The line between the Christian English majority rural areas and the foreign Muslim-run urban areas is becoming more marked. There are places in which Sharia law is de facto law. The English integration system has run aground.

"Why? After Brexit, migrants who continue to arrive in the UK are illegal migrants from Africa, European influxes have stopped. When these two influxes (European and non-European) used to be consistent, they allowed for a balance of diversity which made locals tolerant and therefore traditions weren't at risk."

London is a "reduced" city "worse than any African metropolis", Mr Bragagni writes, "with rising criminality and daily disruption on the Tube, chaotic traffic, sprawling confusion".

Despite this, he says, support for the Labour Party is growing in the city because "Muslims vote Labour" and they are a majority in many of its boroughs.

According to the most recently published Census figures, the borough with the highest proportion of Muslim residents was Tower Hamlets at 34.5%.

Investigation

The article, which is one of a series written by Mr Bragagni in his native Italian, has now been taken down from the Saturno Notizie website.

The Italian-born businessman, who is now a British citizen, is a well-connected figure in the Conservative Party.

In 2020, he was appointed an adviser to an advisory group to the Department of International Trade on British manufactured and consumer goods.

That same year he shared a photo of himself on social media attending a virtual summer party hosted by Boris Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak, for which donors were sent picnic hampers containing cheese and wine to join in from home.

It is not known what thoughts Mr Bragagni shared at this or the other events he has documented attending with cabinet ministers as a party donor.

Last year, an independent investigation found there was discrimination and anti-Muslim sentiment within the Conservative Party but claims of institutional racism were not borne out.

It criticised the party's complaints process and the report's author, Prof Swaran Singh, said it should make "uncomfortable reading".

Update: On the 12 October 2022 Maurizio Bragagni approached the BBC and provided a statement:

"I have never knowingly offended anyone. I apologise that my article originally written in Italian caused unnecessary controversy when translated."