Lee Anderson has accused Conservative leadership candidate Tom Tugendhat of trying to shift the blame for the recent riots onto Nigel Farage and of “gaslighting” people about the party’s role in stoking social division in the UK through mass immigration.
First major speech Since announcing his candidacy for the Conservative leadership race, neo-con MP Tom Tugendhat has largely ignored the role of mass immigration in the riots and protests following the mass stabbing at a children’s dance party in Southport, and instead sought to position himself as the law-and-order candidate, arguing that Prime Minister Keir Starmer has had a “soft” response to violence on Britain’s streets.
Tugendhat is already infamous Supporting the left-wing smear campaign The MP, who criticised the late British conservative philosopher Roger Scruton, also took aim at Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, accusing the Brexit supporter of making “highly irresponsible and dangerous” comments questioning whether authorities were concealing information about the identity and background of a suspect in an attack that left three girls stabbed to death and several others seriously injured.
In response to Tugendhat’s speech, Reform UK Leader and Ashfield MP Lee Anderson, in a comment to Breitbart London, said: “This is yet another attempt to gaslight and shift the blame for the Conservative Party’s failures on mass immigration and broken promises. No wonder a poll today showed that a third of Conservative voters don’t care who the next leader is.”
“The terrible rioting and social unrest we’ve seen on our streets has been caused by years of Conservative failure, with politicians like Tom Tugendhat turning a deaf ear to local concerns about access to healthcare, school locations and the impacts on local jobs.”
Trust in Britain’s political system has fallen to an all-time low, with half of people believing politicians put party before country. https://t.co/GHYJlWsKB6
—Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 14, 2024
While stressing the need for “honesty”, Tugendhat also falsely claimed that Farage, the leader of the Reform UK Party, has not condemned anti-immigration riots, despite the fact that he has clearly condemned them on multiple occasions and has been criticised by his supporters, despite having long rejected political violence and taken pains to distance himself from figures such as anti-grooming gang activist Tommy Robinson.
“Today’s comments, leaving out two-tier policing and the failure of integration, show once again why the Conservative government should never again be trusted,” Mr Anderson said.
“The British people have voted Conservative four times to control immigration, and with each vote things have gotten worse, not better.
“It just shows how arrogant they are if they think that attacking Reform UK will win back the millions of voters they lost to us in the last election.”
Meanwhile, Kemi Badenoch, the former equalities secretary who is seen as a likely candidate to succeed Rishi Sunak in the Conservative Party, said in 2018:Welcomed“Removing caps on skilled worker and student visas. The removal of these caps has led to a record increase in immigration.”
Farage responded to the footage: said“If Kemi becomes the leader, reforms will pick up steam.”
UK: Majority view immigration negatively and majority believe Farage is the only one telling the truth on the issuehttps://t.co/58apPMDmrG
—Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 18, 2024
