Lee Anderson has attacked the media’s “ridiculous” reporting about Tommy Robinson and Reform UK.
Billionaire businessman caused an online storm a fortnight ago when he took up the cause of the former English Defence League leader, who is currently in prison for contempt of court.
Posting on the social media network he owns, X, Musk praised the activist, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, for “telling the truth” about grooming gangs and wrote “Free Tommy Robinson”.
However, , who was pictured with the billionaire Trump-backer not long before he took an interest in Robinson, refused to take the same position as Musk.
“I never wanted Tommy Robinson to join UKIP,” he said on GB News. “I don’t want him to join Reform UK; and he won’t be.”
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Reform UK MP Lee Anderson during the Reform UK East Midlands Conference (Image: PA)
After those comments, Musk suggested that Farage was not the man to lead Reform and then indicated he thought Rupert Lowe, who has Tommy Robinson’s ‘role in exposing these gangs should be acknowledged’, could replace him.
Speaking exclusively to the Express, Anderson took aim at the press for continually asking Farage whether the ex-EDL agitator would be welcome in the party.
He said: “This again is the media being ridiculous, he doesn’t even want to join Reform UK. He has made that quite clear.
“Why the media keep saying; why can’t he join? So, this is a non-conversation.
“But that’s what the media wanted – clickbait.
“Our membership is now 170,000. Now we’ve got 1,500 council candidates ready for local elections [and] we’ve got donors coming in.
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Lee Anderson MP with investigations editor Zak Garner-Purkis (Image: Pete Jenkins)
“I mean, all the other parties would wish they had our momentum.”
Anderson said he thought it was undeniable that when it came to grooming gangs Robinson was right about certain aspects of the scandal.
He added: “Tommy Robinson says a lot of things people agree with and on the grooming gangs there’s a lot of stuff in there I agree with him on and anybody would agree with.
“This rape scandal has not just been going on a few years, people like Anne Cryer of Labour were raising this years before Tommy Robinson. But she was called a racist and shut down by her own party. There are lots of people who spoke about it and it’s left a dark stain on our country.”
Anderson made the comments to the Express during an exclusive documentary in which he opened up about his journey from his early life working down a Nottinghamshire mine to becoming his home town’s Member of Parliament.
In the video, he explains why he thinks post-industrial areas, like his East Midlands constituency, are .
He predicted this transformation of the political landscape could in the same manner as won the US Presidency.
The Reform UK chief whip also revealed what he thought of Musk suggesting .