Lee Anderson stripped of Tory whip over Sadiq
Khan comments
Claim by Ashfield MP that London mayor had ‘given our
capital away’ to Islamists prompted widespread outrage
Guardian
staff
Sat 24 Feb
2024 16.05 CET
Lee
Anderson has been stripped of the Conservative whip after claiming Sadiq Khan
had “given our capital away” to Islamists.
His
comments to GB News on Friday night caused widespread outrage from his Tory
colleagues and Labour MPs, with Khan, the London mayor, calling them
“Islamophobic, anti-Muslim and racist”.
Former
Conservative cabinet ministers joined opposition MPs and the Muslim Council of
Britain in lambasting the remarks, with calls for Rishi Sunak to kick him out
of the party.
On Saturday
afternoon, the chief whip, Simon Hart, made the decision to remove the whip
from Anderson, who will now sit as an independent.
A
spokesperson for Hart said: “Following his refusal to apologise for comments
made yesterday, the chief whip has suspended the Conservative whip from Lee
Anderson MP.”
Anderson,
the MP for Ashfield, had been deputy chair of the Conservative party until last
month, when he resigned after rebelling against Sunak’s Rwanda bill.
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