Tag Archives: lee anderson

Mark Valladares

11 March 2024 – today’s press releases (part 1)

By Mark Valladares | Mon 11th March 2024 - 11:41 pm

  • Lee Anderson: PM cannot govern his own party let alone the country
  • David Neal: Home Office in a state of disrepair
  • Frank Hester: Sunak must return donations and rule out peerage
  • “Early childcare the key to fighting poverty” – Welsh Lib Dems push for fully integrated childcare system in Wales

Lee Anderson: PM cannot govern his own party let alone the country

Responding to reports that Lee Anderson will defect from the Conservatives to Reform, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper MP said:

Rishi Sunak’s authority lies in tatters after the man he personally appointed to be Deputy Chairman of the Conservatives has defected to another party. This is a Prime Minister that cannot govern his own party let alone the country.

Even now Sunak is too weak to rule out Nigel Farage joining the Conservative Party. It just shows that there is now hardly a cigarette paper between the Conservative Party and Reform.

David Neal: Home Office in a state of disrepair

Responding to the comments made by the former Independent Borders Inspector David Neal to the BBC, the Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Alistair Carmichael MP said:

These comments confirm what we already suspected – the Home Office is in a state of total dysfunction and disrepair.

Nothing is working how it should. Now, we don’t even have a Chief Inspector to provide the scrutiny that is so desperately needed.

To think that this Conservative Government can push forward with their failing Rwanda policy while ducking accountability is disgraceful. The Home Office cannot just withhold reports and information that they don’t like.

At the very least, its implementation should be delayed until the Government can get its act together and appoint a Chief Inspector.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , and | Leave a comment
Mark Valladares

Lee Anderson defects to Reform UK – Liberal Democrats respond

By Mark Valladares | Mon 11th March 2024 - 12:20 pm

Whilst you should never be surprised by anything that happens to the Conservative Party these days, this was perhaps one of the more readily predicted events. And, naturally, because you’d have to have a heart of stone not to get some amusement from this, there have been a number of Liberal Democrat responses to the news that Reform UK Ltd has its first MP.

The official response first though…

Wera Hobhouse was quick to point …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , , , and | 12 Comments
Caron Lindsay

LIb Dems demand that Sunak removes the Whip from Lee Anderson

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 24th February 2024 - 12:30 pm

Lee Anderson has spent most of the past 2 years saying horrible things to excite the Tory right. From telling anyone unhappy with how the UK treats migrants could “f**k off back to France” to saying that people should be able to feed themselves for 30p per day, giving him his “30p Lee” nickname, to horribly transphobic comments about Eddie Izzard, he has been one of the commanders of the Tory culture wars.

Last night, talking to GB News, he took it all a step further by being unambiguously racist and islamophobic about London’s Mayor, Sadiq Khan.

From the BBC:

He told GB News Islamists had “got control” of Mr Khan and he had “given our capital city away to his mates”.

His words, which follow pro-Palestinian protests outside Parliament, have also been condemned by Tories.

Not condemned enough by Tories as the same article reports a Conservative source trying to play down what he had said. The fact that he still had the Tory whip 5 minutes after making these comments is an absolute disgrace. As the hours drag on, this looks increasingly like Rishi Sunak is either too weak to discipline Anderson or he agrees with him.

Anyone with an ounce of decency has called on Rishi Sunak to remove the Conservative whip from Anderson for these comments, including Labour’s Annaliese Dodds and Theresa May’s former Chief of Staff Gavin Barwell. Here’s what Lib Dem MPs have been saying.

Daisy Cooper said:

These comments from a Conservative MP are despicable. Rishi Sunak should remove the Conservative whip. There should be no space for this in our country, let alone in our Parliament.

Tim Farron:

This isn’t dog whistle, it’s fog horn. Sunak will remove the whip for this if he has an ounce of either decency or strength.

Munira Wilson:

Utterly disgusted by Lee Anderson’s racist comments. Stirring up hatred and tension in our great capital city in this way is downright dangerous. If Sunak has an ounce of decency and courage, he will kick Anderson out of the Tory party.

Alistair Carmichael:

This is entirely wrong and harmful from Lee Anderson, and comes after a similarly malign attack by the Conservatives in recent weeks. Criticise Sadiq Khan all you like on policy but these dog whistle arguments about his character have no basis and no justification.

Beyond Westminster, Lib Dem AM Caroline Pidgeon:

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 5 Comments
NewsHound

Alistair Carmichael slams Lee Anderson’s Orkney asylum seekers plan

By NewsHound | Wed 22nd November 2023 - 9:27 pm

Lee Anderson has become notorious for saying what many right wing Conservatives think but don’t dare say out loud.

“30p Lee” is a total embarrassment to politics and public life.

Today, he suggested that asylum seekers should be sent to Orkney rather than Rwanda.

This attracted the attention of Orkney’s MP, our own Alistair Carmichael, who said:

This is not a serious proposition. I would be astonished if Lee Anderson could even find Orkney – or in his words “the Orkneys” – on a map. His remarks show inhumanity towards desperate and vulnerable people – and disdain towards island communities to boot.

Anderson has form for brainstorming Tory policy live on air. It is a novel sort of brainstorming as it does not actually involve the engagement of a brain but instead looks more like an exercise in corralling as many prejudices as possible into one space and calling it a policy.

If Rishi Sunak cannot bring his deputy chair into line then the only conclusion is that he approves of these attitudes. Yet another attempt by a Tory MP to kick up dust and distract attention from the failure of their government to manage our asylum and immigration system.

Of course, if only there was an actual solution to the asylum system. Oh wait….

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | Leave a comment
The Voice

Lee Anderson rejects 48,000 leaflets delivered by Lib Dems

By The Voice | Thu 16th February 2023 - 9:57 am

Be careful what you wish for. The controversial deputy chairman of the Tory Party, former Labour MP Lee Anderson took umbrage at a Lib Dem leaflet highlighting his view on the death penalty, food banks, nuisance tenants and the death penalty joked on Twitter that if 48,000 leaflets were dropped off, he would deliver them himself in his constituency. He is trying to lose weight and delivering 48,000 leaflets would certainly help.

In a cunning move, Liberal Democrat peer and councillor for Cleckheaton ward on Kirklees Council Baroness Kath Pinnock duly dropped off 48,000 leaflets at Anderson’s constituency office.

They were rejected by Anderson’s staff who said that political leaflets could not be stored in a constituency office. When asked where the constituency office was, the office staff refused to divulge the information.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged | 7 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Nonconformistradical
    @Andy Daer " If we want to have institutional care of the elderly (which often means abdicating responsibility for our own relatives)" What do you mean by '...
  • Andy Daer
    Keir Starmer's speech writers must have been delighted to have come up with "an island of strangers", an apparently anodyne reworking of Enoch Powell's "rivers ...
  • Peter Davies
    @J The latest poll in London shows us and the Greens up five points each (16% and 15% respectively). I suspect much of that swing is in posh Labour areas like I...
  • David LG
    The problem that Labour (and apparently Ed Davey) fail to grasp is that we don't have an immigration problem, we have a xenophobia problem. If leaving the EU t...
  • Mark ValladaresMark Valladares
    @ Matt, One of the things that often puzzles me is the selective disregard for the idea of market forces. In this instance, market forces are effectively den...