Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden made a passionate case this morning against allowing hate-marches on the streets of London, demanding to know “what have we allowed our society to become”.
The furious rant came after Mr Dowden was pressed over the suspension of Lee Anderson for comments made regarding Islamists and London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
While Mr Dowden said it was right he lost the Tory Party whip after failing to apologise, he appeared to defend similar, less personal comments by former Home Secretary Suella Braverman.
Ms Braverman warned that Islamists and antisemites are now “in charge” of Britain, and have bullied the country “into submission”.
Asked why Ms Braverman still has the whip but Lee Anderson does not, Mr Dowden launched a passionate defence of freedom of speech to call out ongoing problems around policing and extremism.
The Deputy PM said: “I don’t shy away for a moment from facing up to what is happening right now, and all of us need to look ourselves in the mirror and say ‘what have we allowed our society to become?’”
“I see from my own constituents: Jewish people are fearful of walking the streets showing symbols of their own religion; we have hate on marches; and now we have the situation where the actual conduct of Parliament is apparently being influenced by threats of violence and intimidation!”
“I think all of us have a responsibility to face up to what’s happening here. It is un-British!
“We must take this as a wake-up call not to allow this to happen, and I support anyone who calls this out and indeed you’ve seen the words from the PM expressing our grave concern about this.”
Mr Dowden said that while he doesn’t agree with the language used by Lee Anderson, he does feel strongly that Britain has allowed itself to get to a situation where threats of violence and intimidation are seeking to influence debate in this country.
He reiterated: “It’s not acceptable, it’s not British, it’s a cause of worry to me, it’s a cause of worry to my constituents and many people up and down this country”.
Mr Dowden said that the words Mr Anderson chose to use, however, were “not the right words to use”.
“They were the wrong words, words do matter, and he was given that opportunity to apologise and he didn’t.
“He shouldn’t have used those words, and having failed to apologise we have withdraw the whip.”
However the top Tory said it’s important Mr Anderson’s sacking as a Tory MP doesn’t distract from the ongoing underlying issues raised by him, and many other MPs over the last week.
Breaking his silence yesterday evening, Mr Anderson said he understood the difficult position that he put the PM and Chief Whip in and “fully accept that they had no option but to suspend the whip in these circumstances”.
The former Tory vice-chairman added he would “continue to support the Government’s efforts to call out extremism in all its forms – be that anti-semitism or islamophobia”.
