PA.
Hardly the biggest fan of the Conservative Party, Andy Burnham used his time on Laura Kuenssberg’s BBC show to rip into government ministers who have failed to condemn Ashfield MP Lee Anderson’s comments about Sadiq Khan this weekend.
The Tory representative, who has since been suspended, claimed that ‘Islamists had taken control of London’, saying that Khan had given control ‘to his mates’. The highly inflammatory statement has sparked another wave of controversy.
The suspension came 24 hours after Mr. Anderson had delivered his critique on GB News. Suella Braverman also made very similar claims in the week – but she appears to have escaped further scrutiny. Rishi Sunak has not directly responded to either incident.
Senior Tories who are yet to condemn these remarks are being accused of displaying a general malaise on the matter. It’s something that Andy Burnham has noticed, and he’s not willing to let it pass.
Speaking this morning, the Manchester Mayor went into bat for his fellow regional leader, questioning why the Tories don’t take a tough line on Islamophobia. He believes there are ‘double standards’ at play, running right to the top of government.
He also slammed Liz Truss for attending an ‘appalling gathering’ this week, after she shared a stage with Steve Bannon at CPAC. Andy Burnham called the statements made by Braverman, Anderson, and Truss ‘provocative and dangerous’.
“Rightly, the Tories take a tough line on antisemitism, like Labour have been doing. But when it comes to Islamophobia, they have ambivalence and attempt to explain it all away. There is no justification for these comments.”
“If the ‘they’ used by Anderson, Braverman was related to Jewish people, it’d be called out straight away. But there is a double standard. Tories are now making provocative and dangerous statements, including former Prime Minister Liz Truss.” | Andy Burnham
