Lee Anderson has been suspended from the Conservative Party after making “Islamophobic” comments.
A spokesperson for Simon Hart, the chief whip, said: “Following his refusal to apologise for comments made yesterday, the chief whip has suspended the Conservative whip from Lee Anderson MP.”
Pressure had been mounting on Rishi Sunak to act after the MP for Ashfield said he believed “Islamists” had “got control” of Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London.
On GB News earlier this week, Mr Anderson said: “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.”
Responding on Saturday, Mr Khan accused the prime minister of being “complicit” in racism for failing to condemn Mr Anderson‘s comments that “pour fuel on the fire of anti-Muslim hatred”.
He said the claim by the former Tory deputy chairman was Islamophobic and sent the message that Muslims were “fair game” when it came to racism.
Nigel Farage told Sky News that Mr Anderson should “join Reform UK” – the party of which he is honorary president – after his suspension.
But when asked the same question, Richard Tice, leader of Reform UK, said: “I haven’t been in touch with Lee, he hasn’t been in touch with me.
“We’re just focusing on doing what we’re doing and we seem to be doing something right because we’re going up in the polls and the Tories are sinking, Sunak is sinking and, frankly, that’s what I care about.”
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