Police are “assessing” a report made towards Lee Anderson of hate speech following his declare “Islamists” had taken management of London and its mayor, Sadiq Khan, Sky Information understands.
The Ashfield MP was suspended from the Conservative Get together final weekend after he refused to apologise for the remarks, which have been branded as racist by Mr Khan and others.
Nevertheless, whereas ministers – together with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak – have described the feedback as “fallacious”, they’ve repeatedly declined to categorise them as Islamophobic.
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The Metropolitan Police don’t identify people who haven’t been charged with a prison offence.
Nevertheless, after it was first reported in The Solar, the power did affirm a report had been made to them concerning an allegation of hate speech from an MP.
A spokesperson mentioned: “A report was made to police on Saturday, 24 February. Officers are assessing this report.”
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Questions stay round Mr Anderson’s future within the Commons, with some allies within the Tories demanding he’s reinstated and others calling for more durable motion for his feedback.
He has additionally did not rule out becoming a member of the rival Reform Get together – arrange by Nigel Farage and run by his GB Information presenting colleague Richard Tice, who he’s alleged to have met in an M1 resort for talks earlier this week.
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Mr Anderson defended himself once more on Wednesday in an article for the Every day Specific, accusing Mr Khan of “enjoying the race card”, and mentioned the mayor had solely accused him of racism for “political benefit”.
However whereas the now unbiased MP has mentioned the phrases he used have been “clumsy”, he has nonetheless refused to apologise for them.
On Tuesday, Downing Road mentioned Mr Sunak didn’t consider Mr Anderson to be racist however mentioned “the language he used was fallacious and it is unacceptable clearly to conflate all Muslims with Islamist extremism or the intense ideology of Islamism”.
The spokesperson additionally mentioned ministers had not been instructed to not use the time period “Islamophobia”, saying the time period “conflates race with faith, doesn’t tackle sectarianism inside Islam and should inadvertently undermine freedom of speech”.
“Anti-Muslim hatred is the extra exact time period which higher displays UK hate crime laws,” they added.
Mr Anderson has been approached for remark.
