KUALA LUMPUR – The ruling Conservative Party has caved to growing public pressure to act after its former deputy chairman Lee Anderson refused to retract statements claiming “Islamists got control” of London’s Labour mayor Sadiq Khan.
A spokesperson for Tory chief whip Simon Hart said Anderson has been suspended for refusing to apologise for his comments about the mayor.
Anderson, who was on the right-wing GB News channel, had alleged “Islamists had got control” of Sadiq, and he had “actually given our capital city away to his mates”.
Sadiq became the first Muslim mayor of a Western capital when he was first elected in 2016.
This ignited condemnation against Anderson from both sides of the aisle, with Tory peer Gavin Barwell calling the allegations a “despicable slur”.
Meanwhile, the Muslim Council of Britain said the claims were disgusting and extreme.
In response, Sadiq hit out at the Conservative leadership’s “deafening silence” over Anderson’s “racist and Islamophobic” outburst.
Despite being suspended, Anderson has yet to apologise, only saying he put party leader Rishi Sunak and Hart in a “difficult position”.
“I fully accept that they had no option but to suspend the whip in these circumstances. However, I will continue to support the government’s efforts to call out extremism in all its forms – be that anti-Semitism or Islamophobia.”
Sunak is also under fire for his radio silence on the issue.
Incidents of Islamophobia and anti-Semitism have spiked dramatically in the UK as Israel’s siege against Gaza continues to escalate.
Earlier, former interior minister Suella Braverman claimed in a newspaper article that “the Islamists, the extremists and the anti-Semites are in charge now” as a response to the motions tabled in the House of Commons calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. – February 25, 2024