Baroness Sayeeda Warsi is under investigation over her undeclared links to Abid Hussain, a relative by marriage with whom she is involved in a catering business, The Sunday Telegraph said in a report.
However, there were calls last week for the inquiry, ordered by Prime Minister David Cameron, to be widened after Hussain admitted that he had been involved with Hizbut Tahrir, a radical Islamist party that the Conservatives had pledged to ban.
In his first public statement, Hussain said he had attended its meetings, although he said he had never been a “member”, and had not told Lady Warsi about his involvement. She earlier said she was unaware of his activities. There were also questions over one of the trips to Pakistan by Lady Warsi on which she was accompanied by Hussain.
In February last year, she traveled to the country on government business and in the course of the trip opened the “Office for Overseas Pakistanis and British Nationals”, which she said “works with police forces across the UK and British consular services on issues such as forced marriage and kidnapping”.
However, The Sunday Telegraph said it had established that the office was operated from the premises of an opposition party, whose British arm organised a protest against US policy when President Barack Obama visited Britain.
Last night, Michael Dugher, Labour’s shadow cabinet office minister, said Lady Warsi appeared to be mixing party and government business.
The latest investigation into Lady Warsi is being carried out by Sir Alex Allan, the prime minister’s adviser on ministerial code, into the disclosure that company documents showed she was the majority shareholder in Rupert’s Recipes, a spice company whose other shareholder was Hussain.
She had not registered the holding with the House of Lords, whose rules say peers should declare any majority shareholdings.
“These further revelations about the conduct of Baroness Warsi are extremely worrying,” Dugher said. “Yet again, there seems to be a blurring of the lines between what constitutes proper official business and what is, in fact, party political activity with private associates. Labour will be asking urgent questions next week in Parliament, including of the Foreign Office. What the baroness was doing with someone who has admitted his involvement with the extremist group Hizbut Tahrir also calls into question her judgment,” he said.
Hizbut Tahrir has been accused of promoting racism and anti-Semitism, praising suicide bombers and urging Muslims to kill Jews.
Before coming to power, Cameron pledged to ban it but the plan was shelved after a Coalition review. The nature of Hussain’s involvement in the radical party has already prompted questions over the extent of security vetting.
Sources say Hussain joined Hizbut Tahrir in the early 1990s and was nicknamed “Strapper” by other students because of his bulky frame.
He lived for a time in one of its London houses, studying the radical form of Islam taught by its then leader Omar Bakri Mohammed, who is now banned from Britain.