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absolutely free go to spectator. co-dot UK forward slash voucher. Vulture. Hello and

Hello and Welcome to Coffey House Shots The Spectators Daily Politics Podcast. I'm Isabel Hardman and this is the

Sunday roundup. Lee Anderson was stripped of the Tory whip this week after

refusing to apologize for remarks in which he claimed

Islamists had control of Sadiq Khan and control of London.

Speaking to Laura Koonsburg, Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said words matter and that Sunak was right to take action.

However, Dowden was uncomfortable when asked repeatedly to state whether he himself thought Anderson's comments were

Islamophobic. And I think our viewers this morning will want to know if you

believe as one of the most senior politicians in this country that those words were Islamophobic and anti-Muslim.

Do you believe that?

I'm not asking you about Lee Anderson's intent.

I'm asking you what you believe. Well, I think the two of them kind of go together, Laura,

because I don't believe that Lee Anderson was intending to be Islamophobic but nonetheless I understand the the

concern about particularly when it's in relation to the the mayor of London how

those words have caused offense and that and Laura and that that has and because of that that is

that's precisely why he was given the chance of apologize and when he failed to do

so action was was taken in respect to it.

The question I'm asking you and I think our viewers will be able to hear very clearly that

you don't want to give your view. Is it your view that saying I believe they've got control of Khan and they've got

control of London is that Islamophobia? Well I think the the chance that it could be taken the fact that it could

...