Rishi Sunak is facing mounting outrage from Labour, with Sadiq Khan accusing the Conservative party of ‚enabling anti-Muslim hatred‘ by failing to condemn Islamophobia in his statement on racial hatred and web page extremism.
It comes after former Tory deputy chair Lee Anderson was suspended over comments he made about Mr Khan, in which he claimed that he is controlled by ‚Islamists‘ – which the London mayor labelled ‚Islamophobic, anti-Muslim and racist‘.
‚Rishi Sunak’s statement on hatred in politics fails to mention anti-Muslim hatred at all,‘ Mr Khan said on X this afternoon, adding that deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden ‚refused to condemn Lee Anderson’s racist and Islamophobic remarks.‘
‚These are just the two most recent examples of enabling anti-Muslim hatred in the Conservative party.‘
Mr Sunak spoke out to slam the scenes in Westminster this week – where large pro-Palestine protests were held and chaos erupted in the Commons amid a row over the Speaker allowing a vote for an ‚immediate humanitarian ceasefire‘ in Gaza.
London mayor Sadiq Khan has accused the Conservative party of ‚enabling anti-Muslim hatred‘
The Labour mayor attacked the prime minister for his ’silence‘ over the Ashfield MP’s claims (Mr Anderson and Mr Sunak pictured together last month)
The prime minister said that the meltdown in Parliament sent ‚a very dangerous signal‘ that ‚intimidation works‘, which he said is ‚toxic for our society and our politics‘.
Mr Sunak added that legitimate protests had been ‚hijacked by extremists,‘ and that elected representatives had been ‚verbally threatened and physically, violently targeted.‘
Mr Khan was not alone in his criticism of the statement, with Brendan Cox, the widower of MP Jo Cox who was murdered by a far-right extremist, slamming the statement.
He said on X: ‚It is simply not credible for Rishi Sunak to put out a statement after sacking Lee Anderson for Islamophobia not to mention Islamophobia – only prejudice and antisemitism. If you want to tackle extremism you can’t pick favourites.‘