The Conservative party cannot get away from the fact that it has an Islamophobia problem

Far too often it has been allowed to fly under the radar but in an increasingly febrile atmosphere where senior Tories see it fit to further stoke tensions, the issue can no longer be ignored.

The chair and deputy chair of a political party are usually seen to embody everything that party stands for. And it is clear that with Lee Anderson’s elevation to deputy chair, the Tory party was looking to play populist politics.

It shows how far the Tory party has fallen as a result of its internal wars.

Following 13 years in the wilderness, David Cameron sought to better connect with the electorate and promoted Baroness Sayeeda Warsi to Cabinet and made her a co-chair of the Tory Party.

From Baroness Warsi to Anderson, that in itself tells the story of the journey the party has taken.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak denies the Conservative party has Islamophobic tendencies.

The very fact that Tory Ministers refused to mention Islamophobia specifically and those who did decided that it was a good time to argue semantics, suggests the Tory party has a problem with Islamophobia.

To characterise this as a misstep and to even suggest that a simple apology would have seen Anderson retain the whip overlooks the hurt that this form of bigotry is causing.

This isn’t an Anderson issue, nor is it just a Tory party issue, it is a societal problem.

The reality is that this is clearly an attempt to stoke further division. The reason why Tory Ministers are not disowning these comments is because that would mean ceding ground in their attempts to engage in a culture war.