Lee Anderson’s exclusive article in the Daily Express is the “the closest” his critics will get to a “one-word apology”, Penny Mordaunt has said.
The Commons leader also appealed to the Ashfield MP, who remains suspended from the Conservative Party, to “consider all the good” he could do with his position, even if he defects to another political party.
He has refused to rule out joining Reform, originally founded as the Brexit Party by Nigel Farage.
Mr Anderson had the Tory whip withdrawn after suggesting Labour London Mayor Sadiq Khan was controlled by Islamists.
He has not apologised for his remarks but has since described them as “clumsy”.
Shadow Commons Leader Lucy Powell had called on her opposite number to agree that Mr Anderson had used racist and Islamophobic language in his remarks about Mr Khan.
Ms Mordaunt told the Commons: “I know that she will want to hear one word from the Honourable Member for Ashfield, but yesterday he did provide us with 1,000.
“I read his piece in the Express and it is some distance from the view that he expressed in that interview, and I think that what he wrote in the Express is his genuine view.
“Those thousand words, we might have to accept, are the closest we will get to a one-word apology that others seek.
“She has understandably chosen to scold him. I would rather ask him whatever political hue he ends up being to consider all the good he could do in these particular times with the trust and following that he built up.”
Writing in the Express, Mr Anderson insisted he was not racist, saying: “The point I was trying to make last week was that the Mayor of London has lost control of our capital city as the extremists who hide under the Islam banner take over our streets in their attempt to change the course of our democracy.
“These extremists are often labelled as Islamists which, on reflection, is totally unfair on Muslims in general and we must make sure that our language reflects this.”
