Rishi Sunak withdrew the whip from Lee Anderson on Saturday over his claim that Sadiq Khan had ‘given our capital away’ to Islamists, who he referred to as Khan’s ‘mates’. Two days on, the row is still dominating the media, with the BBC running a live blog on the issue. This morning, the Prime Minister used an interview with BBC Radio York to address Anderson’s comments directly for the first time. Sunak repeated three times that the comments were ‘not acceptable, they were wrong – and that’s why he had the whip suspended’.

The main political story has moved from the harassment of MPs over the Gaza ceasefire vote

Given other ministers have suggested that Anderson’s main crime was his refusal to apologise, Sunak’s intervention could be read as a hardening of the government line. It also raises questions about whether there is a path back for Anderson ahead of the election. Over the weekend, several of Anderson’s fellow members of the 2019 intake expressed their dismay that he had been suspended. While most say they do not agree with his comments and believe Sunak took the correct course, there is a feeling among this group that Anderson is an asset with their voters and ought to be allowed to come back when the time is right.

However, that may be some time. Today Anderson has doubled down on his comments – telling GB News he has no plans to apologise: ‘When you think you are right you should never apologise because to do so would be a sign of weakness’. Anderson did however say that this choice of wording may have been clumsy. Given that former Home Secretary Suella Braverman recently said that Islamists are taking charge of Britain and faced no punishment, it appears to be Anderson’s comments regarding Khan that crossed a line for No. 10.

If there is no route back for him, the Reform party will likely step up its efforts to tempt Anderson to cross the House and join. Nigel Farage suggested Anderson would be welcome over the weekend and today the Reform party has today put out a statement by its leader Richard Tice in support of Anderson.

The problem for the Conservatives is that the incident has meant the main political story has moved from the harassment of MPs over the Gaza ceasefire vote, to whether the Tory party has a problem with some of its members’ attitudes to Muslims.

Listen to today’s episode of Coffee House Shots, where Katy Balls, James Heale and Cindy Yu discuss the latest on Lee Anderson: