Liz Truss may not have heard far-right activist Tommy Robinson being branded a hero - despite being right next to Steve Bannon when he said it - the deputy PM claimed.
The 49-day disaster PM has been heavily criticised after a viral clip showed her failing to challenge the former Donald Trump strategist who loudly and brazenly praised the far-right agitator. It has sparked calls for Rishi Sunak to chuck her out of the Tory Party.
Today Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden claimed his old boss may not have heard the remark. He told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: "I know this sounds like a sort of slightly trite point, but when you've got the cameras on, you've got a debate going on, sometimes you don't hear it."
Mr Bannon made the remark after Ms Truss claimed a "radical Islamic party" could win in the Rochdale by-election on Thursday. After she made the claim, Mr Bannon referenced the grooming Rochdale grooming scandal, before claiming: "Tommy Robinson and all these heroes fought it."
Liz Truss has been criticised for not challenging Steve BannonMs Truss was looking straight at the booming-voiced strategist from less than two metres away. Asked whether a "radical jihadist party" could soon have a representative in Parliament, Ms Truss then responded: "That is correct."
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Her former Cabinet colleague Sir Sajid Javid wrote: "I'd hope every MP would confront such a statement head on. Liz should really know better." In a letter to Tory Party chairman Richard Holden, the Muslim Council of Britain wrote: "There is no radical Islamic party - this is false and Islamophobic to play to this trope of Muslims taking over. Furthermore, being silent as the vile Islamophobe Tommy Robinson is called one of the 'heroes' against grooming is unacceptable."
Mr Dowden told Times Radio: "Of course I don't agree with those comments. But I haven't seen the entire context. And often these things are taken out in snippets." He did, however, concede it was "over the top" language.
In a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Ms Truss ranted: “Conservatives are now operating in what is a hostile environment and we essentially need a bigger bazooka in order to be able to deliver.”
Meanwhile Ms Truss's pal Therese Coffey, who was Deputy PM during her brief spell in Downing Street, claimed not to have seen the clip. Ms Truss has also come under fire for claiming her failure was due to a "deep state" which worked against her.
Ms Coffey told the BBC: "I'm not aware how it becomes a conspiracy theory, I think. I think Liz has been expressing a view which isn't new that aspects of institutions and a lot of decisions have often been taken away from ministers."
In a letter to Mr Sunak, Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s Shadow Paymaster General, said: "Your predecessor is spreading disinformation and conspiracy theories about a ‘deep state’ that is to blame for the downfall of her premiership and suggests is in control of the United Kingdom government, economy and civil society at large.
"As you know as well as anyone, it was not a cabal of secretive actors in the civil service working against Liz Truss’ £45 billion pounds of unfounded tax cuts that sent financial markets into turmoil and ended her premiership, but the opposite. It was Liz Truss sidelining advice from respected institutions such as the Treasury and Office of Budget Responsibility that caused her to make such a terrible error that resulted in her government ending after just 49 days."
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