Removing Tory whip from Lee Anderson was a mistake, says Kwasi Kwarteng

Removing the Tory party whip from Lee Anderson was a mistake which “inflamed the situation”, Kwasi Kwarteng has said.

The former chancellor said that the party was “overreacting” by suspending the MP for Ashfield, who went on to become Reform UK’s first MP.

Mr Anderson was suspended from the Tories in February after he refused to apologise for his claims that “Islamists” had “got control” of Sadiq Khan.

Mr Kwarteng said he did not believe the remarks were “really inflammatory” and that removing the whip from Mr Anderson had allowed him to campaign against the Tories.

The MP for Spelthorne told the One Decision podcast: “I think the way in which we reacted was clearly a reactive step.

“I think that inflamed the situation, because what Lee’s doing now is essentially, he’s campaigning for the Reform Party against the Conservatives.”

He added: “Funnily enough with the Lee Anderson issue, I wouldn’t have taken the whip away from him because again, I think it’s overreacting.

“Taking the whip away from somebody is a very serious act and you can do it if he’d said something really inflammatory, which I don’t think those remarks quite were.

“If he’d said something about Muslims, (like) all Muslims do terrible things, that’s clearly racist, that’s clearly something that you could act on.

“He was making a specific comment about Sadiq Khan. And I think it was possible – again, hindsight is a wonderful thing – but it was possible to say, ‘look, we totally disagree with this, this is wrong, but we’re not going to take the whip away.’”

The ex-chancellor cited the Conservative Party’s handling of Enoch Powell following his Rivers of Blood speech in 1968.

“It’s quite a technical thing. If someone says something that is rude, and I disagree with, or as a leader, I don’t think that’s grounds for taking the whip away from somebody.”

He added: “When Enoch Powell made his inflammatory remarks, and they were racist... he was sacked from the shadow front bench.

“He was the defence secretary and he was kicked out of the shadow cabinet. The whip wasn’t withdrawn even then, and I know it was a long time ago.

“But I think it’s a very big step to take the whip away from somebody for saying comments, and not (for) voting against the Government, or not acting consistently, or over a long period of time.”

Mr Kwarteng, who was the architect of Liz Truss’s ill-fated mini-Budget in 2022, said that the Tories had not moved significantly in the polls since her tenure because of Mr Anderson’s party.

“We were in the low twenties when I left office, and when Liz Truss left office, and we’re in the low twenties today, and the reason why we don’t seem to have made any progress in those 18 months can be explained very considerably by this phenomenon, this Reform.”