LABOUR said it “beggars belief” that Lee Anderson attended a Conservative fundraiser alongside ex-prime minister Liz Truss, where he was reportedly given a standing ovation despite being suspended as a Tory MP.

Ms Truss introduced the former Tory deputy chairman, saying: “Who is this de-whipped Tory?” at the dinner to raise money for Bassetlaw MP Brendan Clarke-Smith’s re-election campaign and where all three posed for a picture together.

Ashfield MP Mr Anderson was stripped of the Tory whip last weekend after he refused to apologise for accusing Labour Mayor of London Sadiq Khan of being controlled by Islamists, despite Prime Minister Rishi Sunak labelling his remarks as “wrong.”

The former Labour councillor has also refused to rule out potentially standing for Reform UK, formerly the Brexit Party, at the next election.

Labour’s shadow paymaster-general Jonathan Ashworth said: “It beggars belief that, far from being suspended from the Tories as Rishi Sunak told us, here he is, Lee Anderson, parading around the North Notts rubber-chicken circuit with none other than Liz Truss.

“Given Rishi Sunak deems Mr Anderson as unfit to be a Tory MP, he now needs to bar him from fundraising for the Tory Party.

“Unless he takes action, Rishi Sunak will again be exposed as weaker than ever, and out of control of his chaotic, divided party.”

Labour has previously called for Ms Truss to have the Tory whip removed after claiming at the right-wing Conservative Political Action Conference in the US last month that her efforts to cut taxes had been “sabotaged” by the “deep state”

She remained silent as Steve Bannon, a former senior White House aide to Donald Trump, hailed British far-right figure Tommy Robinson a “hero” during an interview.