Politics conservatives

Thérèse Coffey insists Lee Anderson is not ‘in any way racist’ – and she said it with a straight face

Oonagh Keating. Updated February 26th, 2024

Unless you’ve been off-grid over the weekend, you’ll be aware of the political row started by Lee Anderson‘s Islamophobic comments about Sadiq Khan, which he made on Friday night via a video link to GB News.

Here’s the clip.

“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.”

“He’s given our capital city away to his mates.”

It wasn’t a surprise from Anderson, who has form for inflammatory statements, including saying of the asylum seekers on the Bibby Stockholm –

“If they don’t like barges then they should fuck off back to France.”

Most people condemned the accusation …

In the absence of a statement from the Government, Sadiq Khan addressed why Anderson’s comments are so dangerous.

“It isn’t just about my security, my family’s security, my staff’s security. It’s about the people across our coutry who are at the receiving end of racism, of anti-Muslim hatred, and of Islamophobia.”

Shortly afterwards, news broke that the Conservative whip had been withdrawn from Anderson following his refusal to apologise, bringing the Tory parliamentary majority down to 46 from a high of 80 at the 2019 election.

Naturally, the topic cropped up on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, where Thérèse Coffey had this to say.

It can’t be easy to type while your jaw is on the floor, but these people managed it.

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At least her judgement has been sound on everything else. Oh!

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Lee Anderson demanded BBC local radio play his interview in full so they maliciously complied and it’s magnificent

Source Simon Gosden Image Screengrab, Screengrab