British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (file photo)
London: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Monday tht he strongly disagreed with a Conservative lawmaker who had remarked that the mayor of London is controlled by Islamists, and denied his party tolerates anti-Muslim prejudice.
The Conservative lawmaker claimed Islamists had “got control” of Khan and the city of London. Khan is a member of the opposition Labour Party.
There have been instances of the Pakistani-origin Sajid Khan being accused of sympathies with Islamist elements, and more specifically the comments by Lee Anderson about Mayor Sadiq Khan, amid growing tensions within British politics over the Israel-Gaza war.
In the context, Sunak was pressured to condemn such Islamophobia that underlies such accusations, as reported by AFP.
Anderson – a strident populist – was suspended from the Conservative Party group in Parliament on Saturday, a day after he made the comments.
"These comments weren’t acceptable. They were wrong,” Sunak told BBC radio on Monday. “Words matter, especially in the current environment where tensions are running high, and I think it’s incumbent on all of us to choose them carefully.”
When asked, Sunak denied that there was an Islamophobia problem within his party. “Racism or prejudice of any kind is completely unacceptable. It’s not British and we must stamp it out where we see it,” he added.
Opponents accused the Conservatives of deliberately raising tensions – in an election year – over pro-Palestinian protests that have been going on during most weekends, drawing hundreds of thousands of demonstrators, since the Israel-Gaza conflict began in October.
Sunak fired former Home Secretary Suella Braverman in November after she called the protests “hate marches” and accused police of being too lenient with them.
The protests have been overwhelmingly peaceful, though there have been several dozen arrests over signs and chants allegedly supporting Hamas, a banned organisation in Britain.
Jewish organisations and many lawmakers say the mass marches have created an intimidating atmosphere for Jewish Londoners.
In an interview with right-wing television channel GB News, Anderson criticised the police response to the demonstrations, levelling the blame at the mayor. And for that he blamed Khan saying, “The Islamists … [have] got control of Khan and they’ve got control of London,” and claimed Khan had “given our capital city away to his mates”.
The suspension means Anderson, a deputy chairman of the Conservatives until last month, will sit in Parliament as an independent unless he joins another party such as the right-wing Reform UK, formerly known as the Brexit Party.
Labour said the Conservatives must go further to tackle prejudice, noting that the party said Anderson was suspended for refusing to apologise rather than for his original comments about Khan.
Writing in the Evening Standard newspaper, Khan said Anderson’s comments had “poured petrol on the fire” of hatred against Muslims.
He said some Conservatives were adopting “a deliberate, dangerous political strategy – a strategy to weaponise anti-Muslim prejudice for electoral gain.”
Anderson said on Monday that he would not apologise and renewed his criticism of the mayor, saying Khan had “stood by and allowed our police to turn a blind eye to the disgusting scenes around Parliament”.
That was an apparent reference to a pro-Palestinian protest last week when the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” was projected on to Parliament’s Big Ben clock tower.
Many Palestinians see the slogan as a call for an independent state and an end to decades of Israeli military rule over millions of Palestinians while others perceive it as a call for Israel’s destruction.
Anderson’s suspension comes as tensions over the Israel-Gaza war roil British politics, with some lawmakers saying they fear for their safety after receiving threats over their positions on the conflict.
Reports of both antisemitic and anti-Muslim abuse in Britain have soared since the Hamas-Israeli conflict in Gaza started in October.