Deputy Prime Minister Rejects Claim Anderson Is Islamophobic Following His Suspension

Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden speaks to the media as he arrives at BBC Broadcasting House in London, on Feb. 25, 2024. Yui Mok/PA Wire

Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden has rejected the claim that MP Lee Anderson is Islamophobic after his party suspended the MP over his “Islamist” remarks.

Mr. Dowden said Mr. Anderson would have kept his Conservative whip if he had apologised, and that the row shouldn’t distract from “the underlying issue” of anti-Semitic violence and intimidation.

Mr. Dowden also rejected the claim that comments made by former Home Secretary Suella Braverman earlier this week were “racist,” saying he doesn’t believe Ms. Braverman needs to apologise for her remarks.

It comes after the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) demanded the Conservative Party investigate what it characterised as “institutional” Islamophobia within the party, and after Labour called for former Prime Minister Liz Truss’s whip to be suspended over her recent comments.

It also comes after City of London Police were forced to close Tower Bridge for around an hour on Saturday because of pro-Palestine protesters.

Earlier this week, Ms. Braverman wrote in an article published in The Telegraph that “the Islamists, the extremists, and the anti-Semites are in charge.”

Commenting on her view when appearing on GB News on Friday, Mr. Anderson claimed that Islamists have “got control” of London Mayor Sadiq Khan, London, and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.

The MP for Ashfield asserted that Mr. Khan was “very cowardly” and that Sir Keir “crumbled.”

He also accused Mr. Khan of giving London “away to his mates,” and asserted Sir Keir is “more interested in getting into Number 10 and giving our country away than actually looking after our country.”

Mr. Anderson made the remarks following chaotic scenes in the House of Commons on Wednesday that effectively turned a Scottish National Party opposition day debate on calling for a ceasefire in Gaza into a Labour opposition day. Speaker Sir Lindsey Hoyle had cited security for MPs as part of the reason for his unusual decision that the House should vote on Labour’s amendment first.

On the same day, pro-Palestine protesters tried to swarm Parliament by requesting to meet their MPs en-masse. Separately, slogans, including the controversial chant “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” were projected onto the Elizabeth Tower.

‘Islamophobic’ Claim

Critics seized upon Mr. Anderson’s accusations against Mr. Khan, saying his remarks were “Islamophobic.”

Mr. Anderson’s whip was suspended on Saturday following his “refusal to apologise,” but Labour Party chairwoman Anneliese Dodds insisted it was “deeply concerning” that he could have kept the whip “simply if he apologised.”

Labour Party Party leader Sir Keir Starmer (L) and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan attend the London Region Reception on the eve of the Labour Party annual conference in Liverpool on Oct. 7, 2023. Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

Speaking to broadcasters on Sunday morning, the deputy prime minister said Mr. Anderson had said the “wrong words,” but dismissed claims that he is Islamophobic.

“The words that he chose to use were ... the wrong words, and words do matter. And he was given that opportunity to apologise and he didn’t,” Mr. Dowden told Sky’s “Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips” programme.

“And that’s why having failed to apologise we’ve withdrawn the whip.”

He told LBC: “I don’t believe that Lee intended it to be Islamophobic. I don’t believe Lee Anderson is Islamophobic himself at all. But I do understand the worries that people had about it, particularly the linking to a specific individual, Mayor Sadiq Khan.”

Questioned on why Ms. Braverman has not been suspended from the party, Mr. Dowden said the former home secretary was “making more general observations.”

Mr. Dowden said he doesn’t agree with what she said “on the specifics,” but feels “very strongly” about the scenes in London in the past few weeks.

It’s “something that you and I would not have recognised, your listeners wouldn’t have recognised, a few years ago,” Mr. Dowden said, referencing his Jewish constituents who he said “are fearful of wearing symbols of their religion on the streets” and pro-Palestine marches that included chants and signs that are seen as anti-Semitic.

The deputy prime minister rejected the assertion that Ms. Braverman “espouses racist conspiracy theory views,” and that protesters were animated because the Conservative Party failed to admonish her.

“I don’t agree that what the former home secretary said was racist. We need to be clear where this threat is coming from, which is coming from violent Islamic extremists,” he said.

He also told Sky, “I don’t believe that the language used by Suella Braverman has crossed the line whereby she should apologise for it.”

Mr. Dowden added that “we also need to take very, very seriously what has been going on in the past week or so in Parliament.”

“We should not be distracted from the underlying issue here that has been going on this week, where we cannot allow the kind of violence that we’ve seen, and the threats and intimidation, whether it’s against Jewish people on the streets of this country, whether it’s in those marches, and now apparently it coming to affect what’s going on in Parliament.”

There have been repeated calls to ban the massive pro-Palestine marches which have been occurring almost every week since the Israel–Hamas war broke out.

Mr. Dowden told GB News he has “some sympathy” for the view, but “wouldn’t favour banning the marches altogether” in a country that has freedom of expression.