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Britain’s deputy prime minister on Sunday declined to say if comments by former senior Tory MP Lee Anderson about London mayor Sadiq Khan were racist, as Rishi Sunak warned that democracy must not “fall into polarised camps” after a tense week in parliament.
Oliver Dowden said Anderson’s claim that Islamists had “got control” of London and its Labour mayor “could be taken” as Islamophobic, but that he did not believe the MP for Ashfield “said those remarks intending to be Islamophobic”.
Anderson, former Conservative deputy chair, was suspended from the party on Saturday after causing outrage for telling television channel GB News on Friday that Khan had “given our capital city away to his mates”.
In a statement, Anderson said he accepted “that they [chief whip Simon Hart and Sunak] had no option but to suspend the whip in these circumstances”.
Asked if Anderson would have been able to remain in the party had he apologised for his comments, Dowden told the BBC: “Yes.”
The deputy prime minister said he had “deep concern” about threats targeted at MPs, “which are often coming from Islamic extremists”. “We shouldn’t be shy of calling that out,” he added.
Dowden’s remarks come after the prime minister criticised an “emerging pattern” of intimidation in the wake of the chaotic Gaza ceasefire vote in the House of Commons on Wednesday.
In his first intervention into the debate about the impact of pro-Palestinian marches on the UK political process, Sunak said on Saturday that “our democracy cannot and must not bend to the threat of violence and intimidation or fall into polarised camps who hate each other”.
“The events of recent weeks are but the latest in an emerging pattern which should not be tolerated,” he added in a statement, pointing to “legitimate protests hijacked by extremists to promote and glorify terrorism” and “elected representatives verbally threatened and physically, violently targeted”.
MPs have increasingly voiced concerns about their safety and security, with many saying they have received threats of violence over their stance on Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle, House of Commons speaker, cited the concerns as his reason for changing voting procedures at Westminster to allow a vote on Wednesday on a Labour amendment to a Scottish National party motion calling for a ceasefire.
The move led to chaotic scenes in the Commons, with the Tory party refusing to vote and multiple MPs walking out. More than 70 parliamentarians have since signed an early day motion expressing no confidence in Hoyle.
His position as speaker still hangs in the balance. The SNP is this week expected to call for another “meaningful debate” about a Gaza ceasefire, which could require Hoyle to break convention again and reignite tensions.
On Sunday, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer waded into the Anderson row, accusing Sunak of harbouring “extremists in his party” and allowing Tory MPs to “act with impunity”.
“What does it say about the prime minister’s judgment that he made Lee Anderson deputy chair of his party?” Starmer told The Observer, describing the MP’s remarks on GB News as an “appalling racist and Islamophobic outburst”.
Downing Street was contacted for comment.
Nigel Farage, president of Reform UK, called on Anderson to join his rightwing party, sparking speculation the now independent MP could defect.
Sunak appointed Anderson Tory deputy chair last year in a bid to shore up the party’s support in traditionally Labour-voting “red wall” seats in the north of England. But he quit the role last month, saying the government’s Rwanda migration policy was not robust enough.
Many Tory MPs in the centrist One Nation group fear that rightwing and anti-immigration rhetoric is damaging the party and could cost it support at the election expected this year, especially in liberal-leaning seats in prosperous parts of the south of England.
