Muslims Don’t Matter: Sayeeda Warsi in Conversation

Islamophobia is rising in Britain, driven by media, politics, and far-right extremism. How did we get here, and how can we change course?

Sayeeda Warsi, Britain’s first Muslim Cabinet minister, Conservative peer, and outspoken campaigner, takes us inside the deep-seated biases that allow anti-Muslim racism to thrive in public life, policymaking, and everyday society. From the far-right violence of 2024 to the targeting of Muslim voices during the Gaza conflict, Warsi exposes how Islamophobia has become Britain’s bigotry blind spot.

In this urgent conversation, she draws on her experiences in government and within Muslim communities to unpack the systems that sustain this toxic prejudice and asks what it will take to dismantle them before more lives are lost.

Britain’s first Muslim Cabinet Minister, Sayeeda Warsi is also a lawyer, businesswoman and racial justice campaigner. Appointed to the House of Lords as a life peer at the age of thirty-six, she served as Chairman of the Conservative Party, in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and as Minister for Faith and Communities, an advisor of The Bridge Initiative at Georgetown University, a member of the International Advisory Board on Freedom of Religious Belief, University of Notre Dame and Pro-Vice Chancellor at the University of Bolton. Along with David Baddiel, she presents the podcast A Muslim and a Jew Go There.