Police patrol near Lee Anderson's Ashfield office after 'Islamophobic' Sadiq Khan comments
Police patrols are being carried out around Lee Anderson's constituency office in Ashfield, following his comments about London's mayor, Sadiq Khan.
Mr Anderson, the former deputy chairman, lost the Conservative whip after failing to apologise for claiming “Islamists” had “got control” of Sadiq Khan.
An email from the neighbourhood policing team in Sutton has confirmed that extra patrols are now being carried out around the office following Mr Anderson's comments on GB News.
The Ashfield MP, who is now an independent after being suspended from the Conservative Party, has his constituency office on Outram Street in Sutton.
The email from the neighbourhood police team, sent to senior councillors and officers at Ashfield District Council, says: "Just to make you aware in case you have not seen it in the news, that Lee Anderson has been suspended from the Conservative Party due to his comments that he made in relation to the London Mayor Sadiq Khan which have been deemed to be Islamophobic by the Chief Whip, who has firstly requested an apology but when this has not been forthcoming he has been suspended.
"A community impact assessment has been commenced by Inspector Boylin. My team will be conducting patrols around Mr Anderson's office. If you become aware of any issues please let myself or Inspector Boylin know."
ITV News Central spoke to some of Lee Anderson MP's constituents in Ashfield on Monday:
In an appearance on GB News on Friday, Mr Anderson had said: “I don’t actually believe that the Islamists have got control of our country, but what I do believe is they’ve got control of Khan and they’ve got control of London… He’s actually given our capital city away to his mates.”
Responding to Mr Anderson's comments, the London Mayor said: "These comments from a senior Conservative are Islamophobic, are anti-Muslim and are racist."
Mr Anderson has since said he "understood the difficult position" he had put the prime minister in and that he would "continue to support the government's efforts to call out extremism in all its forms - be that antisemitism or Islamophobia".
He doubled down on his position against Sadiq Khan on Monday, issuing a statement to GB News in which he says his words were "clumsy", but accuses Mr Khan of "double standards" in the policing of pro-Palestinian marches.
"I made some comments yesterday that some people thought were divisive.
"Politics is divisive and I am just incredibly frustrated about the abject failures of the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan", he said.
"My words may have been clumsy but my words were borne out of sheer frustration at what is happening in our beautiful capital city."
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