Withdrawing the Conservative whip from Lee Anderson was a mistake that “inflamed the situation”, Kwasi Kwarteng has said.
The former chancellor said the now-Reform UK MP’s comments about London Mayor Sadiq Khan did not warrant his suspension from the Conservative Party, adding even Enoch Powell had not lost the whip over his “Rivers of Blood” speech.
Mr Anderson, a former deputy chair of the party, had the Tory whip suspended after he claimed Mr Khan was being controlled by “Islamists” and had “given our capital city away to his mates”. He subsequently defected to Reform UK.
Appearing on the One Decision podcast hosted by former MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove, Mr Kwarteng said the decision to remove the whip should be for voting or campaigning against the party, or for “chronic” misbehaviour.
He said: “If someone says something that’s rude and I disagree with as a leader, I don’t think that’s grounds for taking the whip away from somebody.”
Mr Kwarteng added that following Mr Powell’s 1968 speech in which he claimed immigration would lead to significant bloodshed, the then-Tory MP was sacked from the shadow cabinet but did not lose the whip.
He said: “I know it was a very 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.”
He went on to say that withdrawing the whip had “inflamed the situation” by pushing Mr Anderson into the Reform party.
Discussing the threat to the Conservatives from Reform, Mr Kwarteng said the Tories were “shielded” by the first past the post system and a more proportional system could see the party receive 25 per cent of the vote.
He said: “The electorate isn’t stupid, they know if it’s proportional every vote counts.”
Polling has seen Reform average around 13 per cent in recent weeks, with a YouGov poll for The Times putting the party on 15 per cent on Thursday, but the party’s support in elections has usually failed to reach double figures.
Related: Crushing YouGov poll puts support for Tories at 18%