What did Lee Anderson say about Sadiq Khan?

Former Tory MP Lee Anderson has been heavily involved in an “Islamophobia” row over comments he made about the London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, but what exactly did he say?

Anderson, who was the Conservative Party's deputy chairman and MP for Ashfield, has made many headlines over the years, gaining the nickname “30p Lee” over comments he made about the cost of living and food poverty.

He is once again at the top of the news agenda after having the Tory whip removed over his controversial comments about Mayor Khan, who is Muslim, which have been accused of being Islamophobic.

What did Lee Anderson say about Sadiq Khan?

During a television broadcast on GB News on Friday (23 February), Anderson suggested that Khan was under the “control” of “Islamists”.

He claimed: “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, and they’ve got control of [Kier] Starmer as well.”

Anderson was responding to comments made by the former Home Secretary Suella Braverman in an article in the Daily Telegraph, in which she claimed: “The truth is that the Islamists, the extremists and the antisemites are in charge now.”

Anderson was stripped of the Tory whip by the Conservative chief whip, Simon Hart, after refusing to apologise.

Anderson’s comments have sparked outrage and been widely criticised for being Islamophobic in nature, despite the refusal of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to describe them as such. Khan himself described the remarks as “Islamophobic, anti-Muslim and racist”.

Speaking to reporters on Monday (26 February), Sunak said that Anderson’s choice of words “wasn't acceptable, it was wrong, that's why the whip was suspended”. He denied that the party has a problem with Islamophobia.

Anderson has continued to refuse to apologise for what he said about Khan.

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