London (Parliament Politics Maganize) – A former government adviser on faith has urged Rishi Sunak to apologize to London Mayor Sadiq Khan after ex-Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson declared he was under the control of Islamists.
An ex-government adviser on faith has insisted Rishi Sunak apologize to London Mayor Sadiq Khan after ex-Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson stated he was under the control of Islamists.
Colin Bloom briefed the BBC that the comments about Mr. Khan were “disgusting”. Mr. Anderson was stopped by the Conservative Party in Parliament after declining to apologize.
The government stated it was “clear there must be zero tolerance for any form of extremism, racism or hatred”.
A spokesperson stated earlier this month ministers had declared they would introduce “new powers to crack down on intimidatory and aggressive behavior at protests, and…we established a new Defending Democracy Protocol, supported by £31m of additional funding, to ensure that intimidatory protest does not hijack democratic process”.
Grant was also being increased to help residents tackle both antisemitism and anti-Muslim hatred. the spokesperson said.
Mr. Bloom was employed as an independent faith engagement adviser in 2019 by then-prime minister Boris Johnson, to support the government’s understanding of religion in modern Britain. His role was completed in May 2023.
In an interview with BBC Newsnight, he urged the prime minister to personally state sorry to the London mayor, stating it was wrong and “offensive” for a Tory MP to correlate being a Muslim with being an Islamist.
Mr. Bloom also blamed the prime minister for “not delivering the leadership the country needs” by “calling out” Islamist extremism. The “vast majority” of British Muslims were “kind, decent, generous, friendly people” and much more likely to be victims of Islamist extremism, so by failing to make explicit the difference, ministers were harming them, he claimed.
Mr. Bloom, a former executive director of the Conservative Christian Fellowship and director of Christians in Politics, admitted he felt disappointed by what he witnessed as a lack of understanding of faith in politics, but declined to make his criticisms because his contract as a government advisor had come to an end.
In his original remarks on GB News last Friday, Mr. Anderson declared “Islamists” had “got control” of Mr. Khan and told the mayor had “given away our capital” to such extremists.
The former deputy Conservative Party chairman has often refused to apologize – though he has admitted the comments were “a little bit clumsy” – and has told the prime minister made a “mistake” in stripping him of the Tory whip.
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Mr. Sunak and other senior Conservatives have defined Mr. Anderson’s words as “wrong”, but have refused to say whether they were Islamophobic.