Lee Anderson’s worst moments as Nigel Farage tries to woo him amid racism storm

Lee Anderson is politically homeless after having the Tory whip withdrawn when he was accused of racism.

The former deputy chairman was suspended after he refused to apologise for suggesting London Mayor Sadiq Khan is managed by “Islamists”. Mr Anderson, who grew to become MP for Ashfield in 2019, has an extended string of controversies to his identify – together with repeated assaults on those that run meals banks, a foul-mouthed tirade in opposition to asylum seekers and boycotting England matches after gamers took the knee.

Despite the present Islamophobia storm Nigel Farage hasn’t been delay, suggesting he may very well be match for Reform UK. Mr Farage, who’s Honorary President of the occasion, mentioned on Saturday: “Lee Anderson should join Reform UK.”

Here we take a look at what the occasion can be getting if he does be part of.

Dubbed ’30p Lee’ over foodbank rant

The loudmouth MP earned the nickname “30p Lee” after his surprising rant on foodbanks within the Commons again in 2022. He left MPs shocked as he claimed “there is not this massive use for foodbanks in this country” – regardless of organisations reporting rocketing figures. He then went on to assert individuals might “cook meals from scratch” for “30p a day”.

At the time the author and meals campaigner Jack Monroe tweeted: “You can’t cook meals from scratch with nothing. You can’t buy cheap food with nothing. The issue is not ‘skills’, it’s 12 years of Conservative cuts to social support.The square root of f*** all is always going to be f*** all, no matter how creatively you’re told to dice it.

England team boycott over taking the knee

The then-Tory MP launched a bizarre boycott of the England team in the run up to Euro 2020 after the players decided to take the knee as an anti-racism protest. Mr Anderson said: “For the primary time in my life I can’t be watching my beloved England group while they’re supporting a political motion whose core rules purpose to undermine our very lifestyle.”

He was mercilessly mocked for his stubborn vow as the nation united behind Gareth Southgate’s team in their triumphant run to the final. Mr Anderson eventually wavered and said he’d be checking the score on the phone.

Criticised for ‘fake door knock’

Mr Anderson was caught out by veteran journalist Michael Crick trying to get one of his friends to pose as a constituent. In the run up to the 2019 election, the pair were out canvassing in Nottinghamshire when Mr Anderson was caught on a microphone calling a constituent ahead of the visit.

Mr Anderson was heard saying, “Make out you realize who I’m, that you realize I’m the candidate however not that you’re a buddy”. He had told the camera crew that “some leaflets have simply come for me” as he went to rearrange the decision.

Playing down value of dwelling disaster as individuals had been nonetheless going to pubs

Mr Anderson instructed the Tory Party convention in 2022 that the price of dwelling disaster wasn’t as dangerous because it was made out to be – as a result of there have been nonetheless individuals in pubs.

Addressing an viewers in Birmingham he mentioned: “Go in any Wetherspoons, that is the barometer of how this nation is doing, when Wetherspoons is empty we have a giant drawback.”

He then accused the media of fearmongering, telling the viewers: “Whenever we put the TV on people are telling us how poor we are.” He made the remarks throughout Liz Truss’s disastrous time in No10, when the Tory PM tanked the economic system and despatched rates of interest hovering.

Forced to apologise to junior physician over Twitter meltdown

Mr Anderson donated lots of of kilos to the medical doctors’ strike fund and apologised to a medic over a put up on Twitter. The Tory MP, who says he’s in opposition to medics strolling out as a part of industrial motion over pay, handed the British Medical Association £1,870 to “compensate the upset I may have caused” with a tweet he despatched final Autumn.

He additionally issued a grovelling apology to Dr Tom Dolphin, who welcomed Mr Anderson’s donation. Mr Anderson, who’s paid £100,000 a yr for internet hosting a GB News present, mentioned on social media: “On October 6 2023 I shared a link on X to a MailOnline article entitled ‘Militant union leader at the heart of doctors strikes is a Labour activist who boasted of charging the NHS for a strike cover shift’.

“I accept that my words were misleading as the subject in question, Dr Tom Dolphin, was not on strike on the date of the shift in question but was simply covering a shift as a consultant for junior doctors who were on strike on August 11, 2023.”

Hitting out at ‘do gooders’ who run food banks

Back to his 2022 Tory conference event, Mr Anderson had plenty to say about food banks. He said: “I’ve got a big bee in my bonnet about food poverty. I’m a big believer that we do need food banks, but not to the degree we’ve got them.

“Every do gooder is starting these little projects to make themselves feel good.” He claimed that children go hungry due to the failings of their parents, telling young Conservatives: “I’ll take no lectures from the left. How can we have food poverty when we’ve got an obesity crisis?”

Criticising MPs with second jobs, then getting second job

Back in 2021, Mr Anderson had strong views on MPs with second jobs. He wrote on Facebook: “We are paid handsomely for the job we do and if you need extra then you should really be looking for another job.”

But quick ahead to June 2023 and his views appear to have modified. He was confirmed as a brand new host of GB News, the place he earns £100,000 a yr internet hosting his personal present.

He joined Tory MPs Jacob Rees-Mogg, Esther McVey – who has since left – Philip Davies. At the time he said: “GB News is the true voice of the Great British silent majority. I’m joining the people’s channel to ensure their voice is heard.”

Deciding not to vote as other MPs laughed at him

In January Mr Anderson dramatically quit as Tory deputy chair as he wasn’t a fan of Rishi Sunak’s latest Rwanda Bill. He felt it didn’t go far enough, but puzzlingly then failed to vote against it.

Explaining why he hadn’t, he said he’d gone into the voting booth, but Labour MPs had laughed at him, so he walked out. He told GB News: “I used to be going to vote no. I went into the no foyer to vote no, as a result of I could not see how might assist the invoice after backing all of the amendments.

“I got into the no lobby I spent about two or three minutes with a colleague in there. The Labour lot were giggling and laughing and taking the mick and I couldn’t do it. In my heart of hearts I could not vote no.

“So I walked out, and I had come out, so I’ve abstained. I wished to vote no, however after I noticed that lot in there laughing, there is not any approach I might assist them above the occasion that is given me a political dwelling.”

Broke Commons guidelines with roof broadcast

Mr Anderson acquired into sizzling water after the Mirror revealed he had used the roof of his taxpayer-funded Commons workplace to movie a promo for his GB News programme.

The prime Tory was pressured to apologise and pay up after being rapped by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards for recording a plug for his £100,000-a-year TV present on the parliamentary property. Mr Anderson was additionally discovered to have damaged the principles by utilizing his parliamentary e mail deal with for a message to constituents concerning the present.

The MPs Code of Conduct states: “Excepting modest and cheap private use, Members should be certain that the usage of amenities and companies supplied to them by Parliament, together with an workplace, is in assist of their parliamentary actions.” Mr Anderson, who once ranted about MPs having second jobs, took the presenting role on GB News on top of his £86,584 Commons salary.

Tells asylum seekers to ‘f*** off to France’

Mr Anderson issued a foul-mouthed message to migrants because the Government’s plan to accommodate migrants on a barge bumped into issue final summer time. The Tory MP hit out after simply 15 individuals initially moved onto the Bibby Stockholm, which is moored at Portland in Dorset, after different raised complaints. He mentioned: “If they don’t like barges then they should f*** off back to France.”

Campaigners reacted angrily, with Natasha Tsangarides of Freedom from Torture on the time saying: “Time and time again, we’re seeing Government ministers amping up the cruelty of their anti-refugee rhetoric to distract from their own catastrophic mismanagement of both the asylum system and of this country. The dehumanising and inflammatory language used by certain politicians is putting people seeking sanctuary in this country at real risk.”

‘Cheap shot’ joke that folks do not need to go to Bradford amid HS2 row

In September final yr Mr Anderson joked that folks don’t need to get to Bradford any quicker amid rumours northern HS2 hyperlinks may very well be scrapped.

He made the remark throughout a heated fringe occasion on the Tory convention, the place he additionally joked that dictators had been a “good idea” and ranted about “this poverty nonsense”. The Ashfield MP was requested concerning the affect that cancelling the high-speed rail line might have on native companies, together with higher connections between Bradford and Leeds. He shot again: “Anyone here from Bradford? Would you want to get there quicker?”

The room of Tory members and activists erupted into laughter and applause. But one man, who said he was from Sheffield, shouted back: “Cheap shot.” Mr Anderson added that HS2 was a “gamble” and “a bad gambler will always be throwing money at something”.

Claims nurses using foodbanks ‘got something wrong with their finances’

As nurses were striking for better pay last year Mr Anderson took to the airwaves and suggested those who use foodbanks have got “one thing improper” with their finances.

Speaking to Times Radio in December 2022, he said: “I heard some nonsense a number of weeks again that nurses had been really stealing meals from sufferers’ plates. I do not imagine it. Anybody incomes 30-odd-grand a yr, which most nurses are, are utilizing foodbanks then they have one thing improper with their very own funds”.

At the time, the Royal College of Nursing blasted: “Comments like this present a complete disconnect with the truth for the tens of hundreds of nurses who’ve been pressured out within the chilly onto picket strains preventing for honest pay.”

A few months later Mr Anderson was asked on BBC Radio Nottingham in February 2023 whether he believed struggling nurses and firefighters who said they needed to use foodbanks. He replied: “No. I might problem you proper now to discover a firefighter or a nurse in Ashfield that is utilizing a foodbank. I’ll offer you a yr to search out one, I dare say you’ll be able to’t. If you do discover one, we are able to work along with that particular person and take a look at why they should use a meals financial institution”.

Nuisance tenants to be pressured to reside in fields and decide potatoes

Just earlier than his election to Parliament in 2019 the then-Tory candidate for Ashfield mentioned he wished “nuisance” council tenants to reside in a area and decide potatoes at 6am. The weird 53-second video clip prompted outrage with the East Midlands Labour group saying the wild thought amounted to “forced labour camps”.

Appearing within the Carsic property within the constituency, he mentioned: “I stood on this spot a few months ago banging on about nuisance tenants throughout this lovely estate and the fact they were making people’s live a complete misery.”

He went on: “People say to me ‘But they’ve got to live somewhere’. That’s right, so my plan would be – and again this is just my own personal opinion – that these people who ‘have to have somewhere to live’, let’s have them in a tent in the middle of a field, six o’clock every morning let’s have them up, let’s have them in the field picking potatoes or any current seasonal vegetables, back in the tent, cold shower, lights out, six o’clock, same again the next day. That would be my solution.”

Admits Rishi Sunak failing to repair immigration

Shortly after resigning, Mr Anderson caught the boot into the Prime Minister by saying he will not cease the boats. Appearing on GB News, Mr Anderson mentioned: “At the tip of the day, small boats are coming, they’re going to preserve coming.

“I want to see a situation where anybody who arrives illegally in this country has no right at all, to claim asylum, no right to claim an appeal, and more importantly, no right to go missing and disappear into the country.” He added: “I don’t want to see boats pulling up to Dover every 10 minutes. I want to see them not coming and I want to see a bill that delivers that.”

He also ranted that the Tories were failing on immigration back in August. He told GB News. “I’m not gonna sit right here and make excuses to anybody,” he said. “This is uncontrolled. We’re in energy in the meanwhile, I’m the Deputy Chair of the Conservative Party. We are in authorities and we’ve failed on this, there is not any doubt about it. We mentioned we will repair it, it’s a failure… It makes me sick each time I see a ship come throughout the Channel. It makes me livid after I see them put in accommodations and on barges.”

Heard on tape admitting Rishi Sunak lacks charisma of Boris Johnson

In an embarrassing second for the Prime Minister, Mr Anderson was heard on tape saying Mr Sunak lacked the charisma of Boris Johnson.

Mr Anderson admitted the occasion hasn’t given the general public a motive to vote for them on the subsequent election. The loudmouth MP instructed a “Lagers with Lee” occasion: “Rishi is a details man, he gets the job done. He hasn’t got the charisma of Boris, we know that… there’s not many people who have.”

Mr Anderson, who was talking at a gathering at Cambridge Rugby Club on October 13, mentioned the occasion wanted to indicate voters that had backed them for the primary time in 2019 that they deserved to be re-election. “When I’m knocking on doors, speaking to people going round the country, they want to vote for us again. Sadly we’ve not really given a reason to vote for us again,” he mentioned.