The UK’s ruling Conservative party has suspended its former deputy chairman over his claim that London Mayor Sadiq Khan is influenced by “Islamists.”
The party’s chief whip, Simon Hart, announced the decision in response to Ashfield MP Lee Anderson's 'unapologetic' behavior following his remarks on Friday.
Lee Anderson's suspension means that, unless reversed, he is barred from voting in Parliament or standing as a Tory candidate in the next general election scheduled later this year.
“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,” Anderson told TV channel GB News on Friday.
Khan, the son of a Pakistani immigrant, is running for re-election as London's Mayor on May 2 amidst heightened political discord in Britain over the Israeli's latest offensive in the Palestinian Gaza Strip.
A recent Parliamentary debate on Gaza descended into disarray, after House of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle — elected as an MP for the main opposition Labour Party — broke established procedure to select a Labour amendment over one from the governing Conservatives to a motion from the Scottish national Party (SNP) calling for a ceasefire. At least 68 MPs signed a letter of no-confidence in the Speaker after he contradicted his own excuses for the move in an attempt to deny yielding to pressure from his party.
Labour will also go into the by-election in its usually-safe seat of Rochdale on Thursday with no official horse in the race, after withdrawing support from it selected Azhar Ali after it emerged he accused Israel of allowing turning a blind eye to Palestinian party Hamas' preparations for its armed outbreak from Gaza on October 7.
A former coal miner and member of the National Union of Miners, Anderson joined Labour and was elected to the council in his native Ashfield. But he defected to the Tories over what he alleged was a takeover of the opposition by the "hard-left" and was elected Conservative MP for the town in the 2019 general election.
Anderson's appointment as Tory deputy chairman a year ago was seen as an appeal to the blue-collar and traditional conservative vote that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak could not connect with.
The MP has courted controversy before, publicly calling for the return of the death penalty and telling trafficked asylum-seekers to go back to their native countries in four-letter terms. In January, he stepped down as one of the party’s deputy chairmen to vote in favour of amendments intended to strengthen the government's new immigration legislation.
Khan condemned Anderson's comments as "fueling anti-Muslim prejudice."
“We've seen over the last two days confirmation that over the last few months, there had been an increase in anti-Muslim cases by more than 330 percent," Khan said. "I think it's really important to call out antisemitism, it's really important to call out misogyny, it's really important to call out homophobia, but surely it must also be important to call out anti-Muslim hatred.”
The mayor also slammed the PM and the cabinet, accusing them of endorsing Anderson's "racism" by their silence.
“The message it sends is Muslims are fair game when it comes to racism and anti-Muslim hatred...It's not good enough in 2024 in the United Kingdom,” Khan noted.
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps has distance himself Anderson’s comments while not criticising them directly, maintaining that MPs have the freedom to express their views.
Labour shadow cabinet member Jonathan Ashworth wrote to Sunak urging him to remove the whip from Anderson for his “vile Islamophobia” and “dangerous conspiracy theories.”
"Sunak has a clear choice: show some backbone and withdraw the whip or be forever known as too weak to take them on,” Ashworth said.
Pakistani-born Business Minister Nus Ghani, who claimed in 2022 that she had been sacked in a 2020 reshuffle over her "Muslimess", labelled Anderson's claims “foolish and dangerous.” Former chancellor Sajid Javid, also a son of Pakistani immigrants, called Anderson's comments “ridiculous.” The Muslim Council of Britain welcomed the MP's suspension but cautioned that "his comments did not occur in a vacuum and is only the tip of an iceberg.”