Crisis deepens as deputy PM refuses to say whether Lee Anderson is ‘racist’ – as under fire MP tweets ‘Dog House’ beer photos
The deputy prime minister has refused to say on Sky News whether Lee Anderson is “racist” as he backed the decision to suspend him from the Conservative Party following his attack on Sadiq Khan.
Mr Anderson claimed “Islamists” had “got control” of the London mayor whom he claimed had “given our capital city away to his mates”.
His comments on GB News sparked condemnation from across the political divide, including from Tory peer Baroness Warsi who said she was “really disturbed by where the Conservative Party has gone”.
On Sunday afternoon, Mr Anderson tweeted a picture of a pint of beer with the caption: “In the Dog House”.
“A random lady called Sue called in yesterday and left a fiver behind the bar to get me a pint,” he wrote.
“I don’t know you Sue but cheers.”
Earlier on Sky News deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden said the MP for Ashfield had used the “wrong words” against Mr Khan, and that “words matter”.
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Deputy PM condemns Anderson’s comments but refuses to answer if the Conservative party regards him as racist.
Appearing on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Mr Dowden explained that Mr Anderson “was given the opportunity to apologise and he didn’t do so, so therefore we removed the whip”.
Politics latest: Deputy PM refuses to say whether Anderson is racist
Asked by Sir Trevor whether the suspension of Mr Anderson meant the party regarded him as “racist” – or suspected him of being so – Mr Dowden twice refused to address the question and repeated that the Ashfield MP had used “the wrong words”.
Lee Anderson. Pic: PA
Speaking to Sky News, Conservative peer Baroness Sayeeda Warsi – who was the first Muslim woman to serve in cabinet when appointed minister without portfolio in 2010 – claimed a new generation of Conservatives were “dragging this great party… into the gutter”.
Baroness Warsi said that “not only is there a hierarchy of racism” in the Tory Party today, “anti-Muslim racism is being used as an electoral campaign tool” and that Muslims “don’t matter” and were considered “fair game”.
She added: “I’m really disappointed in Oliver, I expect better of him that there’s the insane squad and the sane squad in our party – and I expected him to be part of the sane squad.
“And what he said today was that Lee Anderson had not lost his whip because of his racist remarks, but because he had refused to apologise for his racist remarks.”
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Baroness Warsi says the Conservative Party was being ‘dragged into the gutter’.
The Tory peer drew comparisons with how Labour handled accusations of antisemitism following its decision to withdraw support for its candidate in Rochdale, who claimed Israel allowed the 7 October Hamas attack to take place in order to justify its invasion of Gaza.
“If Labour had turned around and said, ‘Well, that’s it, now he’s apologised, so we’re going to allow him to carry on as the Labour candidate’ – the Conservative Party, my colleagues would have been up in arms,” she said.
“And so what we’re now suggesting is that it’s okay to be racist, but as long as you apologise, there are no consequences. And that’s a really, deeply dangerous place for us to get into.”
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Conservative MP Robert Buckland told Sky News he ‘can’t see how [it] can be the case’ that Mr Anderson stands as a candidate for the party in the next election.
Mr Anderson, who resigned as deputy party chairman over Rishi Sunak’s controversial Rwanda bill, was suspended on Saturday afternoon after comments he made on GB News prompted widespread criticism.
The MP, who was a Labour councillor before defecting to the Tories, told the channel: “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.”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was “right” that Mr Anderson lost the whip for what he called an “appalling racist and Islamophobic outburst”, while former Conservative chancellor Sir Sajid Javid branded the remarks “ridiculous”.
Following pressure to act, Conservative chief whip Simon Hart said Mr Anderson had been suspended “following his refusal to apologise for comments made yesterday”.
Despite condemning Mr Anderson for his comments, Mr Dowden did not criticise former home secretary Suella Braverman for using a recent op-ed article in the Daily Telegraph to claim the UK was “sleepwalking into a ghettoised society where Sharia law, the Islamist mob and antisemites take over communities”.
Asked why Ms Braverman still has the Conservative whip, Mr Dowden said: “I don’t shy away for a moment from facing up to what is happening right now, and I think all of us need to look ourselves in the mirror and say, what have we allowed our society to become?
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“I see from my own constituents where Jewish people are fearful of walking the streets, showing symbols of their own religion, where we have hate on marches, and now we have the situation where the actual conduct of parliament is apparently being influenced by threats of violence and intimidation.”
He added: “I don’t believe the language used by Suella Braverman has crossed the line whereby she should apologise for it.”
Mr Sunak’s decision to remove the whip means Mr Anderson will sit as an independent MP in the Commons.
The former deputy party chair said he accepted that the Conservatives had “no option” but to suspend him but that he will “continue to support the government’s efforts to call out extremism in all its forms – be that antisemitism or Islamophobia”.
The former leader of Reform UK in Wales has been sentenced to 10 and a half years after he admitted accepting tens of thousands of pounds in cash to make pro-Russian statements to the media and European Parliament.
Nathan Gill had “abused a position of significant authority and trust” and was “motivated by financial and political gain”, said Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb during remarks at the Old Bailey on Friday.
Gill, 52, of Anglesey, North Wales, had previously pleaded guilty to eight counts of bribery between 6 December 2018 and 18 July 2019, corresponding to his time as an MEP.
Nathan Gill is surrounded by media as he arrives at the Old Bailey. Pic: PA
The Old Bailey heard his activities were linked to pro-Russian statements about Ukraine while he was a member of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and subsequently the Brexit Party.
Following an investigation by counter-terrorism police, officers said they believe Gill likely took a minimum of £40,000 in cash and was offering to introduce other British MEPs so they could be bribed. Officers also said they believed some individuals in this case had a direct link to Vladimir Putin.
Nathan Gill pleaded guilty to eight counts of bribery. Pic: Met Police
Prosecutor Mark Heywood KC previously told the court the bribery offences related to Gill’s association with pro-Russian Oleg Voloshyn, who had been a Ukrainian government official before 2014 and was sanctioned by the UK in 2022.
Gill’s activities emerged in WhatsApp messages after he was stopped at Manchester Airport on 13 September 2021.
He was about to board a flight to Russia to be an observer in elections there.
Bundles of cash recovered
Police said the messages revealed Voloshyn had tasked Gill to make pro-Russian statements on a reward basis. Counter-terrorism officers said the text of some speeches was provided to Gill, which he delivered almost word-for-word.
In other cases, he was paid to offer commentary to news outlets, such as the pro-Russian media organisation 112 Ukraine.
A search of his home in Wales also uncovered thousands in euros and dollars.
Bundles of cash were recovered from Gill’s home. Pic: Met Police
Pic: Met Police
Greed ‘primary motivation’
Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command, described Gill as being motivated by money.
“It appears… greed was his primary motivation. But I think there’s an element of him that had a pro-Russian stance as well, but only he can answer that question, to be honest with you, he never told us that.”
Gill was interviewed in March 2022 and made no comment. He was charged and appeared in court in February 2025.
Gill said no comment when interviewed by officers in 2022. Pic: Met Police
‘A grave betrayal of trust’
During sentencing, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb described Gill’s offending as “sophisticated” and “a grave betrayal of the trust vested in you by the electorate”.
She told him: “You accepted payments from foreign nationals, made statements on important international matters at their behest, utilised scripted material presented as your own, and orchestrated the involvement of other MPs.
“Your misconduct has ramifications far beyond personal honour, which is now irretrievably damaged. It erodes public confidence in democracy when politicians succumb to financial inducement.”
Gill was paid to offer commentary to pro-Russian media outlet, 112 Ukraine. Pic: Met Police
Other UK politicians at risk
Commander Murphy said that police were continuing to investigate other MEPs, including some from the UK.
“What we do know from the conversations with [Oleg] Voloshyn is that Nathan Gill actually offered his services to contact other MEPs, mostly UK MEPs, to also make statements that might be supportive of a Russian position in Ukraine,” he said.
He added: “I do believe that some of the individuals in this case do have direct connections to Vladimir Putin. And I have no doubt that if we were able to, we could follow this trail and it would lead straight to Moscow.”
Commander Dominic Murphy believes greed was Gill’s primary motivation
Gill led the Welsh wing of UKIP between 2014 and 2016 and was a member of the Senedd between 2016 and 2017.
He was an MEP between 2014 and 2020, but left UKIP in 2019 to join Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party – later Reform UK.
Political fallout after prison term
Police have confirmed Nigel Farage has not been part of this investigation, but political rivals have called on the Reform UK leader to launch a thorough investigation.
Defence minister Al Carns, a former colonel in the Royal Marines, said Gill’s actions were “a disgrace”. He added: “I just think wherever we see Russian influence in UK politics, it’s got to be weeded out.”
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Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said “a traitor was at the very top of Reform UK”, referring to Gill, but also launched a direct attack on Mr Farage by calling him, and his party, “a danger to national security”.
“Nigel Farage himself was previously paid to be on Putin’s TV channel, Russia Today, and said he was the world leader he admires the most.
“We must all ask – where do his loyalties really lie? We need a full investigation into Russian interference in our politics,” he said.
Reform UK, which previously kicked Gill out of the party, said in a statement: “Mr Gill’s actions were reprehensible, treasonous and unforgivable. We are glad that justice has been served and fully welcome the sentence Nathan Gill has received.”
Liz Saville Roberts, Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader, welcomed Gill’s jail sentence “for his acts of betrayal in taking bribes from Russia”.
In a statement, she said: “If the former Reform UK leader in Wales was part of a broader, co-ordinated effort to advance Moscow’s agenda within our democratic institutions, then the public deserves to know the full truth, and how far Russian money and influence reached into Nigel Farage’s inner circle.”
Britons buying cocaine on a Friday night could be inadvertently funding Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The National Crime Agency has revealed a billion-dollar money laundering network is operating in 28 towns and cities across the UK.
Couriers collect “dirty” cash generated from drugs, firearms and immigration gangs, which is then converted into cryptocurrency.
Officials say these illicit transactions have a direct link to “geopolitical events causing suffering around the world”.
This network was first exposed because of Operation Destabilise – and to date, 128 arrests have been made, with more than £25m in cash and digital assets seized.
A poster put up in motorway service station toilets by the NCA. Pic: PA
According to the NCA, the enterprise is so prolific that it purchased a bank to facilitate payments that supported Russia’s military efforts and helped sidestep sanctions.
Posters have been put up in motorway service stations to target couriers, which warn it is “just a matter of time” before they will be arrested.
The NCA’s deputy director for economic crime, Sal Melki, has warned the threat posed by this money laundering network is significant.
He added: “Cash couriers play an intrinsic role in this global scheme. They are in our communities and making the criminal ecosystem function – because if you cannot profit from your crimes, why bother.
“They are paid very little for the risks they take and face years in prison, while those they work for enjoy huge profits.”
Mr Melki went on to warn that “easy money leads to hard time” – and earning just a few hundred pounds through laundering could lead to years behind bars.
Sal Melki
The NCA says Operation Destabilise has already had an impact in criminal circles, with some members of the network now reluctant to operate in London.
Those involved in the money laundering effort have also started to charge higher fees – reflecting the difficulty of cleaning ill-gotten gains.
Cryptocurrencies are often regarded as a haven for criminals because they are perceived to be anonymous, but it is possible to trace these transactions.
Chainalysis is a company that monitors suspicious activity on blockchains, a type of database that keeps records of who sends and receives digital assets – as well as how much.
Its vice president of communications Madeleine Kennedy told Sky News: “Public blockchains are transparent by design, which makes cryptocurrencies a poor vehicle for money laundering.
“With the right tools, law enforcement can trace illicit funds – whether they’re connected to drug trafficking, sanctions evasion, or cybercrime – and use those insights to disrupt networks and recover assets.”
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Ekatarina Zhdanova. Pic: NCA
Last December, a global investigation led by the NCA smashed two networks whose money laundering activities were prevalent in 30 countries.
Bundles of cash were seized during raids, with detectives describing Smart and TGR as the invisible link between “Russian elites, crypto-rich cybercriminals and drug gangs in the UK”.
One of the network’s ringleaders, a Russian national called Ekatarina Zhdanova, is currently in custody in France and awaiting trial for separate financial offences.
Security minister Dan Jarvis added: “This complex operation has exposed the corrupt tactics Russia used to avoid sanctions and fund its illegal war in Ukraine.
“We are working tirelessly to detect, disrupt and prosecute anyone engaging in activity for a hostile foreign state. It will never be tolerated on our streets.”
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