Lee Anderson bottles BBC QT after saying PM must be ‘courageous and debate anyone’

Lee Anderson bottled appearing on BBC Question Time just hours after claiming Rishi Sunak should be “brave enough to debate anybody”.

Appearing on GB News on Wednesday night, the loudmouth Reform UK candidate suggested the Prime Minister was frit.

Mr Anderson called on Mr Sunak to agree to a TV showdown with Nigel Farage. “I think as a Prime Minister, he should be prepared and brave enough to debate anybody,” he said. “The great British public would love to see a debate with Nigel Farage, Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer. They would love that.”

However, it appears Mr Anderson was feeling less courageous when he was invited to go on Question Time the following evening. During the programme on Thursday, presenter Fiona Bruce revealed they had asked him to be on the panel but he had refused.

Mr Farage, who was appearing instead, was asked why he was representing Reform on TV when he won’t be standing to become an MP. “Don’t ask me, you invited me on the show,” he told Ms Bruce. But she immediately hit back: “We actually asked Lee Anderson but he wasn’t available to come on.”

Ex-Conservative Party deputy chairman Mr Anderson defected to Reform UK in March. It came after he was suspended as a Tory MP after refusing to apologise for claims Islamists had “control” of London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

Speaking at a press conference at the time, Mr Anderson said he was “prepared to gamble on myself” because he said he knew “how many people support Reform and what they have to say”. He is standing for re-election in Ashfield, where he won by 5,733 votes at the 2019 election.

Mr Farage last week announced he will not stand as a candidate at the General Election. The former Ukip leader has unsuccessfully stood for Parliament seven times. The Reform UK honorary president said it was “not the right time” for him to run again, but he said he will “do my bit to help” the party in the campaign.

Mr Farage, 60, had his first unsuccessful attempt to become an MP at the Eastleigh by-election in 1994. His last bid to become an MP ended in failure in 2015 when he lost by 2,812 votes in South Thanet.

Mr Anderson has been approached for comment.