Kwasi Kwarteng clashed with political commentator Sebastian Salek in a furious row over asylum seeker housing.
Speaking on GB News, the former Chancellor and his fellow guest locked horns after Lee Anderson raised concerns in Parliament about “military-aged men” being sent to HMOs in his constituency.
Earlier today, the Reform MP told the Commons he had been “contacted by hundreds of families in Ashfield over the past six years” about the “impact HMOs are having on my community”.
“Nobody wants a hotel full of illegal migrants in their area. Nobody wants young fighting-aged males, 400 of them, sometimes from backward cultures that treat our women as second-class citizens,” Mr Anderson declared.
Discussing the statement, Mr Kwarteng said that locals around the UK had every right to feel concerned about the development.
“We saw this with our own eyes in Epping Forest in Epping.
“People in the community rose up, not quite in arms. They were well-behaved but absolutely disgusted by the prospect of this being their environment and their community,” he said.
Mr Salek, who bills himself on X as “explaining how Labour is fixing Britain”, interjected.
Kwasi Kwarteng clashed with political commentator Sebastian Salek in a furious row over asylum seeker housing
|GB NEWS
He said public concerns have arisen because of the “amount of fear in the media and from certain politicians”.
The commentator took particular issue with the term “fighting aged men,” which he described as an “awful way to frame it”.
Mr Kwarteng shot back: “You cannot gaslight people!”
However, Mr Salek claimed gaslighting was “exactly” what the media and politicians were doing.
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Mr Salek challenged the former Chancellor on supporting remarks made by Lee Anderson
|GB NEWS
The pair then descended into a furious back-and-forth, accusing each other of gaslighting.
Mr Kwarteng fumed at his interlocutor for implying the concerns of Britons over asylum housing were “irrational or somehow due to prejudice”.
Mr Salek then challenged him to “reject” the language used by Lee Anderson.
“I wouldn't use that language. I wouldn't use that word,” the former Chancellor conceded.
“We can have a semantic debate, but the reality is they're mostly young men.”
“The vast majority of young men who will go into these communities, and they come from different cultures.”
Mr Salek interjected again, questioning: “I’m a young man, why am I not considered a threat? Why are you assuming foreigners are a threat?”
“Because they’re from different cultures,” Mr Kwarteng reiterated.