Lee Anderson has, unsurprisingly, blamed PM Keir Starmer for the far-right riots rather than his own party’s leader Nigel Farage.
The Reform MP spoke to GB News last night after more than a week of violent unrest against migration levels, and completely rejected the suggestion his own populist, anti-migrant party leader was responsible for the disorder.
He claimed: “The people to blame for this is parliament.
“And Nigel [Farage] touches on this every single day, talks about the effects of mass legal migration, talks about the effects of mass illegal migration, and people in this country are fed up.”
Farage admitted earlier this week he did spread misinformation by the likes of misogynist Andrew Tate about the Southport stabbings, the incident which triggered the wave of anti-migrant chaos.
The Reform Party leader also released a social media video suggesting the police were concealing something from the public about the suspect.
But, when reminded of this, Anderson said: “You have to remember that Nigel’s not only a politician, and a good politician at that, but he’s also a broadcaster.
“So he’s coming at it from two angles, he can ask difficult questions and make these statements – and a lot of it is thought-provoking, I will admit that from Nigel, but that’s his job and he’s very good at it.
“He doesn’t shy away from the difficult issues.”
The MP then rounded on the prime minister, who announced he would crack down on “far-right thugs” by mobilising more police officers.
Anderson said: “We’ve seen Starmer last week make this ridiculous speech on the steps of Downing Street, what did he do?
“He might as well have just chucked a bucket of petrol over a fire. Because it’s just exploded, hasn’t it, over the last seven days or so.”
Presenter Patrick Christys asked: “So you think Keir Starmer is more to blame for what we’re seeing on the streets – the riots, the protests – than Nigel Farage?”
“I absolutely do, yeah,” Anderson replied. “He denies that there’s two-tier policing, we know there is, there’s two-tier government, there’s two-tier policing.”
“Two-tier policing” is a conspiracy theory parroted by those on the right, which claims protesters of colour are treated more leniently than any white protesters.
This allegation has been denied by both the government and the police.
Anderson, who has previously said migrants should “fuck off back to France,” told broadcasters earlier this week that rioters were just “young idiots” who fell in with the “wrong crowd”.
The riots expected across the country on Wednesday largely failed to materialise, after huge crowds of anti-racism marchers outnumbered them.