Labour has called for Tory MP Lee Anderson to lose the whip over what it described as “Islamophobic” comments about Mayor of London Sadiq Khan.
He told GB News Islamists had “got control” of Mr Khan and he had “given our capital city away to his mates”.
His words, which follow pro-Palestinian protests outside Parliament, have also been condemned by Tories.
Labour Party chairwoman Anneliese Dodds said the remarks were “unambiguously racist and Islamophobic”.
Writing on X, she said Rishi Sunak “needs to immediately remove the whip” from Mr Anderson, while Labour’s shadow paymaster general Jonathan Ashworth made the same call in a letter to the prime minister, describing the Ashfield MP’s words as “appalling racism and Islamophobia”.
Withdrawing the whip would see Mr Anderson essentially expelled from his party in Parliament.
A Conservative source told the BBC: “Lee was simply making the point that the mayor, in his capacity as Police and Crime Commissioner for London, has abjectly failed to get a grip on the appalling Islamist marches we have seen in London recently.”
On Wednesday, protesters assembled at Parliament in response to a proposed vote on a ceasefire tabled by the SNP – which in itself sparked controversy related to how the vote was handled.
Mr Anderson’s comments followed an article by former Home Secretary Suella Braverman in the Daily Telegraph, in which she said “the truth is that the Islamists, the extremists and the antisemites are in charge now”.
Image source, Reuters
Politicians from the Labour and Conservative parties have criticised the comments about Sadiq Khan
In an apparent reference to the article, Mr Anderson said he did not “actually believe that these Islamists have got control of our country” but he did believe they have “got control of Khan and they’ve got control of London”, and that they have “got control of Starmer as well”.
Mr Khan has been mayor of London since 2016 and is the first Muslim to hold the position.
Writing on X, former Conservative Chancellor Sajid Javid reposted the video of Mr Anderson making the comments and wrote “a ridiculous thing to say”.
Leader of Conservative party at City Hall, Neil Garratt, said he had “no shortage of criticisms of Mayor Khan” but that “he is not an Islamist, he is not in the pockets of Islamists, and I completely disagree with anyone who says otherwise”.
Iman Atta, director of charity Tell Mama, which describes itself as the leading agency on monitoring anti-Muslim hate crime in the UK, called the Tory MP’s remarks “highly offensive, highly dangerous”.
In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Ms Atta said the Mayor of London is subjected to many anti-Muslim attacks “on an ongoing basis”, adding that it was important that politicians “send a clear message that anti-Muslim hate is unacceptable, as antisemitism is unacceptable in our country”.
Until January Mr Anderson served as one of the deputy chairmen of the Conservative Party but he resigned so he could rebel against the government over the Rwanda vote.
He is currently one of a number of Conservative MPs who present a GB News show.
Meanwhile, former Conservative Prime Minister Liz Truss has come under fire for promoting conspiracy theories about why her reign as prime minister ended after only 49 days during appearances at conservative events in the United States.
She left office after a period of political and economic turbulence, which forced her government to ditch tax cuts that sent financial markets into a tailspin.
She has been criticised for not interjecting during a panel discussion with former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon, in which he called the former leader of the English Defence League and anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson a “hero”.
Mr Ashworth, who also asked for the prime minister to remove the whip from Ms Truss, said: “For a senior politician to engage in spreading such blatant conspiracy theories is incredibly damaging to our democracy, our institutions and social cohesion.”
He added: “As you know as well as anyone, it was not a cabal of secretive actors in the civil service working against Liz Truss’ £45bn of unfounded tax cuts that sent financial markets into turmoil and ended her premiership, but the opposite.”
The BBC has approached the Conservative Party for comment.
