Lee Anderson was stripped of the Tory whip yestereday after refusing to apologise for remarks in which he claimed ‘Islamists’ had ‘control of Khan, and… control of London’. Speaking to Laura Kuenssberg on the BBC, 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, saying only that ‘they could be taken in that way’. Dowden suggested that Anderson would have kept his job if he had apologised for his comments, and was keen to turn the focus onto concern over a rise in anti-Semitism in the country.

Dowden: Braverman’s ‘Islamist’ remarks are ‘in a different category’

Kuenssberg then showed Dowden a sentence from an article Suella Braverman wrote for the Telegraph in which she claimed ‘the Islamists… are in charge now’. Kuenssberg asked Dowden if there was any difference between her comments and those of Lee Anderson. Dowden said he did not agree with Braverman, but argued that her comments did not ‘cross the line’ in the same way. When pressed to explain, he suggested that Anderson’s specific reference to Sadiq Khan made his comments more problematic. Dowden added that he had a deep concern about threats and intimidations which he said did often come from ‘Islamic extremists’.

Andy Burnham: ‘There is a hierarchy of racism’ in the Tory party

Sitting on Laura Kuenssberg’s panel, the mayor of Greater Manchester accused the Tory party of ‘ambivalence’ over Islamophobia. He argued that there was no difference between Anderson and Braverman’s remarks, and claimed that if both people had been talking about Jewish rather than Muslim ‘control’, it would be called out as anti-Semitism by Tory MPs ‘straight away’. Burnham said some Tories were using provocative rhetoric to create an ‘existential debate’ about the future of the party.

Lisa Nandy: ‘The idea that you would threaten the Speaker… is for the birds’

Chaos reigned in the House of Commons this week after Speaker Lindsay Hoyle broke parliamentary convention by allowing a vote on Labour’s amendment to the SNP motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Hoyle apologised, but suggested he had made his decision over fears for the safety of MPs receiving threats. Kuenssberg asked Labour’s Lisa Nandy if she could guarantee that no-one in her party told Hoyle he would lose his job after the general election if he didn’t allow a vote on Labour’s amendment. Nandy said she could guarantee that, and claimed the Conservatives pulled their motion after discovering they couldn’t prevent Labour’s from going through, deliberately causing the collapse of the debate.

Ed Davey confident Lib Dems will be third biggest party again at next election

Liberal Democrats leader Ed Davey told Laura Kuenssberg his party were approaching the next general election with ‘excitement’, and were more confident than they had been for a long time. Kuenssberg pointed out that Liberal Democrats candidates had lost deposits in two recent by-elections, but Davey claimed that in council by-elections the Liberal Democrats had ‘by far’ had the best set of results across the country. Davey said that in lots of areas the Liberal Democrats were the party to vote for if people want to get rid of the Conservatives.

Estonian prime minister: It’s a ‘great honour’ to be on Putin’s most wanted list

Finally, Estonia’s prime minister Kaja Kallas spoke to Laura Kuenssberg this morning, calling for continued support for Ukraine, and urging countries to spend more on defence to prevent further aggression from Putin. She warned that we must not repeat ‘the same mistakes of the 1930s’ and that war can expand very fast across Europe. When asked about being put on Putin’s most wanted list, she joked that she had received congratulations from friends, and said that she did not feel intimidated.