Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden has said that "he doesn't believe that Lee Anderson was motivated by Islamophobia" when he made a number of controversial comments on GB News.
It comes after Lee Anderson was suspended from the Conservative Party yesterday after being accused of making "Islamophobic" comments when discussing Sadiq Khan's leadership in London.The ex-deputy Tory party chair has refused to apologise for his remarks.
Anderson previously 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."
A spokesperson for Chief Whip Simon Hart said: "Following his refusal to apologise for comments made yesterday, the Chief Whip has suspended the Conservative whip from Lee Anderson MP."
Lee Anderson has suspended from the Tory party
PASpeaking on GB News this morning, Deputy Prime Minister Dowden said: "I don't believe that Lee Anderson is an Islamophobe.
"The choice of words that he used was not appropriate. He was given the opportunity to apologise, didn't take that opportunity and therefore the chief whip took the decision to remove the whip from him.
"Believe me, I have huge problems with Sadiq Khan. I experience it pretty much every day. His war on the motorists or his failure to build houses in London because of his absurd affordability requirements, but linking the two through religion.
"And I think that's something that Lee himself has accepted. He was given that opportunity to apologise and and he didn't do so. So the whip has been suspended.
Oliver Dowden said that he doesn't think Lee is an Islamophobe"
GB News
"I don't think any of us would have imagined that in our lifetimes debates in Parliament were being threatened by threats of violence against members of Parliament.
"And this forms part of a chain that we have seen, whether it's Jews in my constituency afraid to walk the streets because of they're showing symbols of their religion, or it's those hate filled marches where people still walk alongside them on the marches but don't call it out and we, all of us, of course there's a law enforcement response this, but there's also underlying questions about the sort of society we live in and all of our responsibility to call this kind of conduct out."
Khan criticised Anderson, saying his remarks were "Islamophobic, racist and anti-Islam".
The Labour Mayor said: "These comments from a senior Conservative are Islamophobic, are anti-Muslim and are racist.
Lee Anderson sparked uproar with his comments
GB NEWS"We've seen over the last two days confirmation that over the last few months there's been an increase in anti-Muslim cases by more than 330 per cent.
"These comments pour fuel on the fire of anti Muslim hatred and I'm afraid the deafening silence from Rishi Sunak and from the cabinet is them condoning this racism.
"And I'm afraid it confirms to many people across the country that there's a hierarchy when it comes to racism."
Following his suspension Anderson said: "Following a call with the Chief Whip, I understand the difficult position that I have put both he and the Prime Minister in with regard to my comments."I fully accept that they had no option but to suspend the whip in these circumstances.
"However, I will continue to support the Government's efforts to call out extremism in all its forms - be that anti-semitism or islamophobia."