'Muslimness' sacking claim should be investigated if complaint is made - UK's Raab

FILE PHOTO: Britain's Justice Secretary Dominic Raab walks outside Downing Street in London, Britain November 30, 2021. REUTERS/Tom Nicholson/File Photo

LONDON (Reuters) - A British lawmaker's claim that she was sacked from a ministerial job partly because of her Muslim faith should be properly investigated if she makes a formal complaint, Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said on Sunday.

Nusrat Ghani, who lost her job as a junior transport minister in February 2020, told the Sunday Times that she was told by a "whip" - an enforcer of parliamentary discipline - that her "Muslimness" had been raised as an issue in her sacking.

"We have absolutely zero tolerance for any discrimination, and any Islamophobia, in the Conservative Party," Raab told Sky News on Sunday. "A claim like this, as serious as it is, should be properly reported, and then a proper investigation (should take place)."

(Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Gareth Jones)