Lee Anderson has faced ridicule for a social media post celebrating St George’s Day – where some dodgy spelling was arguably the least of the problems.
The former Tory deputy chairman announced in March that he was switching to Reform UK following the fall-out from saying “Islamists” had “control” over London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan.
The Ashfield MP already has a history of making controversial statements – he has argued food bank users “cannot budget” and criticised England footballers for taking the knee. Last summer he said migrants should “fuck off back to France”.
Now free of the governing party, “30p Lee” on Tuesday posted a special message to mark the day that celebrates the dragon-slayer of legend and England’s patron saint.
He wrote in an X message introducing a video: “Trigger Warning.
“If you are a Guardian reading, advacado eating, Palestinian flag waving, Eddie Izzard supporting Vegan then this clip is probably not for your consumption.
“Happy St George’s Day!”
Note the spelling “advacado”.
In an accompanying video, he points to his St George’s flag cufflinks and says: “Look at these here look, flag of St George.
“It’s St George’s Day today and this country of ours has been a gift to the world. Look at the industrial revolution, culture, art, music, sports.
“Everywhere you look on this planet, you see some of that. Oh by the way, happy birthday William Shakespeare.”
But many had problems with his interpretation of, well, most of it.
The website of English Heritage, the charitable trust that looks after the national heritage, points out that St George was born in what is now Turkey, and died in a Roman province of Palestine.
The Christian martyr St George, who is the patron saint of Georgia and Portugal among others, is also a “Palestinian hero”.
It’s this background that informed many of the mocking responses to Anderson’s post.
The Ashfield MP already has a history of making controversial statements – he has argued food bank users “cannot budget” and criticised England footballers for taking the knee. Last summer he said migrants should “fuck off back to France”.