Lee Anderson will now sit in parliament as an independent member after his comments sparked a flood of criticism.
The British Conservative Party has suspended one of its members, Lee Anderson, for saying that London's mayor, Sadiq Khan, is under the control of “Islamists”.
Khan, the first Muslim mayor of London and a member of the opposition Labor Party, has been criticized by the Conservative Party for his handling of police operations in the British capital, including regularly holding pro-Palestinian marches. ing.
Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside parliament on Wednesday in a chaotic vote on whether to call for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the exact language to use.
House of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle said she broke normal parliamentary voting procedures because some MPs have received threats of violence in the past for their views on the conflict. Pro-Israel supporters in the UK, such as Anderson, are trying to portray the pro-Palestinian movement as dangerous, even though the majority of British respondents in several polls support an end to Israel's attacks on Gaza. .
Mr Anderson told television station GB News on Friday. But what I believe is that they control Caen and they control London too. He actually handed over our capital to his people. ”
His comments sparked a flurry of criticism across political lines, with Labor Party chairwoman Anneliese Dodds calling them “blatantly racist and Islamophobic”.
Tory economy minister Nous Ghani, senior junior minister Sajid Javid and Tory peer Gavin Barwell were among those who joined in the complaint, with Mr Barwell calling the comments “despicable”. It was called slander.”
The Islamic Council of Britain said they were “disgusting” and extremist.
Khan has regularly spoken of the importance of combating anti-Semitism, misogyny and homophobia, but Anderson's comments were racist and Islamophobic and “added fuel to the fire of anti-Muslim hatred.” He told reporters that it was something he would “pour.”
Amid growing criticism of Mr Anderson's comments on Saturday, the Conservative Party announced that it had decided that he could no longer serve as a member of parliament.
A spokesperson for Simon Hart, the government minister responsible for party discipline, said: “The leader has suspended the Conservative whip against Lee Anderson MP after he refused to apologize for his comments yesterday.”
Anderson, a former Conservative Party deputy leader, did not respond to requests for comment.
He will now sit in parliament as an independent member.
A survey conducted by Savanta between February 16 and 18 found that 29% of Britons think the Conservative Party has a problem with Islamophobia, the highest of any major party.
Conservative House of Lords member and former co-leader Sayeda Warsi previously said the party was “institutionally Islamophobic”.
Mr Anderson's comments come amid a dramatic spike in Islamophobic incidents across the UK. Anti-Muslim hate incidents in the UK have more than tripled since war broke out between Israel and Hamas in October, a watchdog group said on Thursday.
Since then, Tell MAMA has recorded 2,010 such incidents, the highest number of incidents recorded in the last four months, according to a statement from the body set up to monitor and report such incidents. .
The latest figures represent a 335 per cent increase from 600 incidents in the same period in 2022-2023.
“We are deeply concerned about the impact that the Israel-Gaza war is having on hate crime and social cohesion in the UK,” said TelMAMA director Iman Atta.
“This rise in anti-Muslim hatred is unacceptable and we need our political leaders to speak out and say that anti-Muslim hatred, like anti-Semitism, has no place in our country. We want to send a clear message.”
