It is RIGHT to spark debate on threat of Islamic extremism on our democracy and our way of life, says Mark Dolan

most left-wing labour leader in a generation – at the 1983 general election. He cites Scargill, and old school socialists Dennis Skinner and Tony Benn, as important influences in his early political beliefs.

He worked as a coal miner for 10 years, just like his father, after which he worked for the citizens advice bureau and latterly in hostels supporting the homeless.

A life long member of the party, he was elected as a Labour councillor in 2015 in Ashfield.

But in 2018, he defected to the Conservatives in response to Labour’s position on Brexit and what he called the takeover of the Labour Party by the hard left – hardly a controversial view, given that the momentum backed Jeremy Corbyn was their leader.

He was elected a Conservative councillor in Mansfield in 2019, and the rest is history.

And now his career with the Conservatives looks to be history too after a poorly judged set of remarks about the London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

Speaking on this very channel, Lee Anderson, who is a good friend of mine and remains so, said that Islamists had Mayor Khan in their pocket. He said:

“I don't actually believe that these Islamists have got control of our country, but what I do believe is that they've got control of Khan, they've got control of London. He's actually given our capital city away to his mates”.

Now I think it was wrong to label Khan in this way. Lee Anderson was given the opportunity to apologise, and if he had done, he would have remained a Conservative member of Parliament. It's unfortunate that he has not.

What's not unfortunate is that he has rightly sparked a debate about the threat of Islamism, or Islamic extremism, to our very democracy, to the rule of law, and to the British way of life.

It's misleading for Sir Keir Starmer to label these remarks as racist and xenophobic, or even Islamophobic. Anderson is calling out extremism – people on the so-called peace marches, chanting antisemitic slogans, and just this week projecting anti-Jewish hate speech onto Big Ben - as glaring an assault on our values as you can imagine, short of blowing the whole building up.

I've had people on the show saying “from the river to the sea” is not antisemitic.

Well, the words by definition imply the disappearance of Israel from the map. Sounds pretty antisemitic for me. I've done a few gigs at bar mitzvahs and Jewish weddings, and let me assure you, “from the river to the sea” would not be my opening line.

The vast majority of British Muslims make a huge contribution to British life, and are peace loving. But to vilify Lee Anderson for voicing concerns about dangerous extremists is to ignore a deeply sinister and growing problem for our country, and one which as we saw in parliament this week strikes at the heart of our very democracy.

It was the leader of the opposition himself, Sir Keir Starmer who pressurised the common speaker Lindsay Hoyle into accepting a Labour amendment, which meant Labour MPs did not have to vote on an immediate ceasefire.

He made it clear to Lindsay Hoyle that if Labour MPs had not supported an immediate ceasefire, they would have faced threats of violence and possibly even murder when they left the chamber.

Is that not worthy of comment on the part of Lee Anderson or any other member of Parliament?

Do Mayor Khan and the Met police not have a case to answer for the amount of anti-Jewish rhetoric displayed at those pro-palestine marches? I think the political commentator and author Douglas Murray put it well on Twitter this weekend when he said:

“It’s become a great tradition in UK public life to not confront Islamic extremism. Instead, each time there’s an attack or threat we sacrifice someone who said something about the threat. I see this season Lee Anderson is the votive offering. Brilliant. That’ll solve everything.”

Here's the lesson of the story – Lee Anderson has now gone, but the problem facing our country remains.