Welsh Secretary criticised for not condemning MP’s ‘Islamaphobic’ comments

Martin Shipton

Shadow Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens has criticised Secretary of State for Wales David Davies for failing to condemn controversial Islamaphobic comments made by suspended Tory MP Lee Anderson.

Mr Anderson, the former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, was suspended at the weekend after he refused to apologise for claiming “Islamists” had achieved “control” over London and that the city’s Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan had “given our capital city away to his mates”.

Asked on BBC Radio Wales why Mr Anderson had been appointed deputy chairman of the party in the first place, Mr Davies said: “I think Lee has made a good contribution to the Conservative Party over the years and I hope this issue is going to get sorted out. It’s a bit rich to hear criticisms from Labour when you’ve got one of their senior frontbenchers [deputy leader Angela Rayner] who has called Tories scum.

I’ve had that shouted at me in the street by people who now think it’s OK to do it., because they’ve heard it from Labour frontbenchers, so I’ll take no lessons from Labour.”

Suspension

When it was put to Mr Davies that what Mr Anderson had said should have led to immediate suspension, that former Prime Minister Liz Truss had failed to condemn far right activist Tommy Robinson during an interview in the United States and that former Home Secretary Suella Braverman shouldn’t talk about Islamists in the way she does, and that the Conservative Party objectively had a problem just as Labour had under Jeremy Coirbyn, Mr Davies said: “I don’t know the details of what conversations took place after Lee made his comments, but I understand from the press more than anything else that he was given a chance to apologise – and that’s fair enough, just as I think Labour wanted one of their candidates in the Rochdale by-election to apologise,”

Presenter Vaughan Roderick said: “He did apologise, and later on they still suspended him.”

Mr Davies said: “At the end of the day, parties will take action if people cross lines. Lee has been given a chance to apologise, but I think he’s got a contribution to make and I hope he might think about that. But I’ve been a victim.

Somebody came up to me a couple of weeks ago in a bookshop and started abusing me in a pretty threatening fashion. It happens all the time and I’m sorry that certain people, not in the Conservative Party but elsewhere, seem to have given others a licence to go and call people scum in the street and I think Labour need to look to some of their own senior frontbenchers when it comes to the way in which we’ve allowed appalling language and abuse to be normalised.”

Conspiracy theories

Responding to Mr Davies’ comments, Ms Stevens said: “”David’s refusal to condemn Lee Anderson’s disgusting rhetoric is part of a growing tolerance of conspiracy theories at the top of the Conservative Party, which must not be tolerated. Language is important. The public knows that. He knows that.”

Given his previous expressions of support for Mr Anderson, we also asked Andrew RT Davies, the Welsh Conservative Senedd group leader, for his view of the MP’s latest statements, but he did not respond to our message.

When Mr Anderson was appointed deputy chairman of the Tory party in February 2023, Mr Davies posted a video of a crowd jumping deliriously in celebration under a comment that read: “Lee Anderson appointed Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party!”

Cllr Andrew Morgan, the Labour leader of Rhondda Cynon Taf council, responded: “We are now well into the series of that Tory soap opera called ‘the beginning of the end’, to which Mr Davies replied: “As a plain speaking former miner, I have no doubts Lee’s common sense approach will go down very well in Rhondda Cynon Taf.”

Two months later Mr Davies posted a further message praising Mr Anderson which stated: “Really looking forward to our Welsh Conservative conference in Newport on 28th/29th April! The guest speaker at our conference supper will be Lee Anderson! Promises to be a cracking evening.”