The deputy prime minister has refused to say on Sky News whether Lee Anderson is “racist” as he backed the decision to suspend him from the Conservative Party following his attack on Sadiq Khan.
Mr Anderson claimed “Islamists” had “got control” of the London mayor who had “given our capital city away to his mates”.
Deputy PM Oliver Dowden said the outspoken MP for Ashfield used the “wrong words” to hit out at the mayor, and that “words matter”.
However, Mr Dowden refused to condemn recent remarks by former home secretary Suella Braverman, who said the “Islamist mob” had now “taken over” communities in Britain.
Appearing on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Mr Dowden explained that Mr Anderson “was given the opportunity to apologise and he didn’t do so, so therefore we removed the whip”.
Politics latest: Deputy PM refuses to say whether Anderson is racist
Asked by Sir Trevor whether the suspension of Mr Anderson meant the party regarded him as “racist” – or suspected him of being so – Mr Dowden twice refused to address the question and repeated that the Ashfield MP had used “the wrong words”.
Mr Anderson, who resigned as deputy party chairman over Rishi Sunak’s controversial Rwanda bill, was suspended on Saturday afternoon after comments he made on GB News prompted condemnation from across the political divide.
The MP, who was a Labour councillor before defecting to the Tories, told the channel: “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… He’s actually given our capital city away to his mates.”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was “right” that Mr Anderson lost the whip for what he called an “appalling racist and Islamophobic outburst”, while former Conservative chancellor Sir Sajid Javid branded the remarks “ridiculous”.
Following pressure to act, Conservative chief whip Simon Hart said Mr Anderson had been…
