Oh dear. Lee Anderson has now lost the Conservative whip after refusing to apologise for comments directed at London’s mayor. Appearing on GB News yesterday, the red wall Rottweiler declared that ‘Islamists’ have ‘got control of London’ and its mayor, Sadiq Khan. He told the network that Khan has ‘Given our capital city away to his mates. I don’t actually believe that the Islamists have got control of our country, but what I do believe is they’ve got control of Khan, and they’ve got control of London.’
It triggered a storm of criticism from the opposition parties, with Anneliese Dodds, the Labour chair, labelling Anderson’s comments as ‘unambiguously racist and Islamophobic’. She added that ‘Rishi Sunak needs to immediately remove the whip’ – just hours after Jon Ashworth made the same demand for Liz Truss, following her ‘deep state’ speech. Junior minister Nus Ghani has meanwhile broken rank to reveal she has confronted Anderson personally:
I have spoken to Lee Anderson. I’ve called out Islamic extremism (and been attacked by hard left, far right and Islamists). I don’t for one moment believe that Sadiq Khan is controlled by Islamists. To say so, is both foolish and dangerous. Frankly this is all so tiring…
Even Grant Shapps – about as assured a media performer as you can find on the Tory front bench – looked uncomfortable when forced to defend Anderson earlier. The Defence Secretary told BBC Breakfast that ‘It’s certainly not the way I would put things’ and suggested that calls for Anderson to lose the whip were ‘one for [the] party itself’.
The party of which Anderson was deputy chairman until just four weeks ago…
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