Lee Anderson will now take a seat as an independent lawmaker in parliament after his comments sparked an avalanche of criticism.
The UK Conservative Party has suspended one of its lawmakers, Lee Anderson, after claiming that London Mayor Sadiq Khan was under the control of “Islamists.”
Khan, the first Muslim to be mayor of London and a member of the opposition Labor Party, is a frequent target of Conservative criticism for his handling of policing in the UK capital, including regular pro-Palestinian marches.
On Wednesday, hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside parliament during a chaotic vote on whether to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and the exact language to use.
The speaker of the lower house of Parliament, Lindsay Hoyle, said she had broken normal parliamentary procedure for the vote because of previous threats of violence some lawmakers had received over their views on the conflict. Pro-Israel voices in the UK, such as Anderson, have attempted to present the pro-Palestinian movement as dangerous, even though the majority of British respondents in several polls support an end to Israel's attack on Gaza.
Speaking to GB News television on Friday, Anderson said: “I actually don't think these Islamists are in control of our country. But what I do believe is that they have control of Khan and control of London. In fact, he has given our capital city to his teammates.”
His comments sparked an avalanche of criticism from across the political spectrum, with Labor Party president Anneliese Dodds calling them “unequivocally racist and Islamophobic”.
Conservative business minister Nus Ghani, MP Sajid Javid and his Conservative peer Gavin Barwell were among the senior Conservative figures to join in the complaints, with Barwell calling the comments a “despicable insult”.
The Muslim Council of Great Britain called them “disgusting” and extremist.
Khan – who regularly speaks out about the importance of fighting anti-Semitism, misogyny and homophobia – told reporters that he viewed Anderson's comments as racist and Islamophobic and would “add fuel to the fire of anti-Muslim hatred.”
Amid growing criticism of Anderson's comments on Saturday, the Conservative Party said it had decided he could no longer represent them in Parliament.
“Following his refusal to apologize for comments made yesterday, the chief constable has suspended Conservative whip MP Lee Anderson,” said a spokesman for Simon Hart, the government minister in charge of party discipline.
Anderson, a former vice president of the Conservative Party, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
He will now take a seat as an independent legislator in parliament.
A Feb. 16-18 poll by Savanta showed that 29 percent of Britons believed the Conservatives had an Islamophobia problem, the most of any major political party.
Sayeeda Warsi, a Conservative member of the House of Lords and former co-chair of the party, has previously said the Conservatives were “institutionally Islamophobic”.
Anderson's comments come at a time when incidents of Islamophobia have increased dramatically across the UK. A monitoring group said Thursday that anti-Muslim hate incidents in the United Kingdom tripled after the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas in October.
Since then, Tell MAMA recorded 2,010 such cases, the highest recorded number of cases in a four-month period, according to a statement from the organization, which was created to monitor and report such incidents.
The latest figures are up from the 600 incidents recorded during the same period in 2022-2023, an increase of 335 per cent.
“We are deeply concerned about the impacts that the war between Israel and Gaza is having on hate crimes and social cohesion in the UK,” said Tell MAMA director Iman Atta.
“This rise in anti-Muslim hate is unacceptable and we hope political leaders will speak out to send a clear message that anti-Muslim hate, like anti-Semitism, is unacceptable in our country.”
