Oliver Dowden has defended Suella Braverman after she sparked a row by claiminf “Islamists” are running Britain.
The deputy prime minister insisted the former home secretary had not “crossed a line”, despite Labour’s Yvette Cooper saying she was speaking “total nonsense”.
Braverman’s latest outburst came in the wake of Wednesday night’s chaotic scenes in the Commons over Gaza.
That came after Speaker Lindsay Hoyle controversially chose a Labour amendment amid concerns of a backlash against MPs by pro-Palestine campaigners.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Braverman said: “I may have been sacked because I spoke out against the appeasement of Islamists, but I would do it again because we need to wake up to what we are sleep-walking into: a ghettoised society where free expression and British values are diluted. Where sharia law, the Islamist mob and anti-Semites take over communities.”
She went on: “The truth is that the Islamists, the extremists and the anti-Semites are in charge now.
“They have bullied the Labour Party, they have bullied our institutions, and now they have bullied our country into submission.”
On Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips on Sky News, Dowden was asked why Braverman had not been disciplined in the same way as Lee Anderson, who lost the Tory whip for comments he made about Sadiq Khan.
Dowden said: “I don’t believe that the language used by Suella Braverman has crossed the line whereby she should apologise for it.”
The exchange came after Keir Starmer urged Rishi Sunak to “get a grip” of the “extremists” in the Tory Party.
He said: “It’s right that Lee Anderson has lost the whip after his appalling racist and Islamophobic outburst against Sadiq Khan.
“But what does it say about the prime minister’s judgment that he made Lee Anderson deputy chairman of his party?
“Whether it is Liz Truss staying silent on Tommy Robinson or Suella Braverman’s extreme rhetoric, Rishi Sunak’s weakness means Tory MPs can act with impunity.”