Prime Minister Boris Johnson has asked the Cabinet Office to conduct an inquiry into allegations made by Conservative MP Nusrat Ghani.
Ms Ghani claimed she had been sacked as a junior minister because of concerns about her “Muslimness”.
Ms Ghani said when she lost her job as a transport minister in 2020, a Government whip told her “Muslimness” had been raised as an issue at a Downing Street meeting to discuss the reshuffle.
MP for Sherwood Mark Spencer tweeted on Saturday, January 22, to confirm he was the subject of the allegations, but that he denied the claims.
Over the weekend two cabinet ministers – Health Secretary Sajid Javid and Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi – backed calls by Ms Ghani for an inquiry into her treatment.
And on Monday morning, Mr Johnson asked for an inquiry into her claims.
A No 10 spokeswoman said: “The Prime Minister has asked the Cabinet Office to conduct an inquiry into the allegations made by Nusrat Ghani MP.
“At the time these allegations were first made, the Prime Minister recommended to her that she make a formal complain to CCHQ (Conservative Campaign Headquarters).
“She did not take up this offer.
“The Prime Minister has now asked officials to establish the facts about what happened.
“As he said at the time, the Prime Minister takes these claims very seriously.”
The conduct of the whips’ office has come under intense scrutiny following claims tactics amounting to blackmail were used to pressure Tory MPs seeking to oust the Prime Minister.
Mark Spencer is also the Conservative MP for Sherwood and has been since May 2010.
He was appointed Chief Whip, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury, in July 2019.
And Mr Spencer says claims he used Islamaphobic language against fellow Conservative MP Nusrat Ghani are "completely false" and "defamatory".
He Tweeted on Saturday, January 22, to confirm he was the subject of the allegations.
In a series of tweets, Mr Spencer said: "To ensure other Whips are not drawn into this matter, I am identifying myself as the person Nusrat Ghani MP has made claims about this evening. These accusations are completely false and I consider them to be defamatory. I have never used those words attributed to me.
"It is disappointing that when this issue was raised before Ms Ghani declined to refer the matter to the Conservative Party for a formal investigation.
"I provided evidence to the Singh Investigation into Islamophobia which concluded that there was no credible basis for the claims.
"Pto be included in the report. These claims relate to a meeting in March 2020. When Ms Ghani raised them she was invited to use the formal CCHQ complaints procedure. She declined to do so."
Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said on Monday (January 24) there will be an investigation into the claims.
The Cabinet minister told Sky News: “She has made a very serious allegation, the Prime Minister spoke to her last night and said the Cabinet Office will investigate this and look at the detail of this.
“She put out a statement last night saying actually, to be fair to her, this could be people who weren’t even members of the Conservative Party, which is why we need to get to the bottom of this very quickly."
Health Secretary Sajid Javid followed Education Secretary Mr Zahawi in insisting that the incendiary allegations by Nusrat Ghani were properly looked into.
In an interview, Ms Ghani said that following her dismissal as a transport minister in February 2020, she was told by a Government whip that her faith made colleagues “uncomfortable” and that her career would be “destroyed” if she tried to complain.
In a fresh statement on Sunday, the MP for Wealden said she that after she spoke to Boris Johnson about what had happened, he wrote to her to say he “could not get involved”, and suggested she should use the internal Conservative Party complaints process.
“This, as I had already pointed out, was very clearly not appropriate for something that happened on Government business,” she said.
She added: “Now is not the time I would have chosen for this to come out and I have pursued every avenue and process I thought available to me, but many people have known what happened.
“All I have ever wanted was for his Government to take this seriously, investigate properly and ensure no other colleague has to endure this.”
The row comes at a perilous moment for Mr Johnson as he awaits the publication of the report of Sue Gray into allegations of Downing Street parties in breach of lockdown rules, amid fears in No 10 it could trigger a new waves of demands for him to go.
