Lee Anderson loses the Tory whip

Oh dear. Lee Anderson has now lost the Conservative whip after refusing to apologise for comments directed at London’s mayor. Appearing on GB News yesterday, the red wall Rottweiler declared that ‘Islamists’ have ‘got control of London’ and its mayor, Sadiq Khan. He told the network that Khan has ‘Given our capital city away to his mates. I don’t actually believe that the Islamists have got control of our country, but what I do believe is they’ve got control of Khan, and they’ve got control of London.’

It triggered a storm of criticism from the opposition parties, with Anneliese Dodds, the Labour chair, labelling Anderson’s comments as ‘unambiguously racist and Islamophobic’. She added that ‘Rishi Sunak needs to immediately remove the whip’ – just hours after Jon Ashworth made the same demand for Liz Truss, following her ‘deep state’ speech. Junior minister Nus Ghani has meanwhile broken rank to reveal she has confronted Anderson personally:

I have spoken to Lee Anderson.