AN independent, externally-led investigation should be conducted into Islamophobia in the Conservative Party, Scotland’s First Minister has insisted.

Humza Yousaf branded remarks made by MP Lee Anderson towards London mayor Sadiq Khan as “despicable” and insisted they demonstrated a “normalisation of Islamophobia” in society.

Anderson told GB News “Islamists have got control” of Khan who had “given the city away to his mates”.

It came after former home secretary Suella Braverman claimed Islamist extremists are now controlling Britain in a Telegraph column.

Anderson has lost the Tory whip with Rishi Sunak saying his comments were “wrong”.

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But the former deputy chair of the Tory party doubled down on his comments on Monday saying his words were “clumsy” but “borne out of sheer frustration at what is happening to our beautiful capital city.”

Yousaf said Anderson should be expelled from the party but insisted there must also be a wider probe into Islamophobia within the Conservatives who he claims “have a real problem” with it.

Asked about Anderson’s comments in Glasgow, Yousaf said: “I thought they were despicable and again another demonstration that Islamophobia is becoming far more normalised in our society.

“The fact an MP – granted Lee Anderson may be on the fringes – but an MP can speak about another elected member so brazenly and in such Islamophobic terms, really explicit Islamophobia, and think that that’s acceptable goes to show I think just how normalised Islamophobia has become.

“I stand in full solidarity with Sadiq Khan who has far more integrity than anybody like Lee Anderson.”

Pressed on what he believes should happen to Anderson, he went on: “He shouldn’t just be suspended, he should be expelled from the party, but he’s not the only one.

“The other comments that were disgraceful last week were from Suella Braverman, and that to me highlights that the Conservatives have got a real problem with Islamophobia.

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“They should allow an independent, externally-led investigation into Islamophobia in the Conservative Party and just make sure they have a zero-tolerance approach to hatred of any kind.”

Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden has said he didn’t believe Anderson was “intending” to be Islamophobic and refused to be drawn on whether the comments were racist.

He also defended Braverman after she said the UK is “sleepwalking into a ghettoised society”.

Yousaf called Braverman “the worst of politicians” following her column, accusing her of deliberately stoking “the fires of racial and religious tensions for self-serving purposes”.

He added: “The very definition of a scorched earth policy. Shameful.”