‘You’ll be on the dole!’ Lee Anderson fumes at ‘unemployable’ Labour MPs in fiery row in General Election debate

Taking aim at the Labour MPs present, Mr Anderson said: "Let's be honest, if this petition was to likely to trigger a General Election, I doubt very much whether some of my former colleagues would be in the room today, because many of them will actually lose their seats.

"We all make mistakes, and when we make mistakes, we should hold our hands up and say sorry. And wherever I go in this country, and I travel a lot around this country, every week, I get people saying to me that they're sorry, sorry for voting Labour for the last General Election, and they will never vote Labour again.

"They wish they could turn the clock back and vote for a different party, normally Reform UK."

Challenging Mr Anderson in the debate, an MP asked him: "He talks about being sorry, so many people across the country voted Reform in local council elections on the basis that council taxes are going to be no increase or perhaps even cut.

"Now they're faced with rises at the very limit of what is legally possible. Is he sorry for that?"

The Reform MP responded: "I would just correct him slightly on that, nowhere in our literature, in our national literature, did anybody promise to cut council tax anywhere in the country. But anyway, I get apologists apologising for voting Labour, and sometimes I get the odd lunatic might say they're going to vote for the Green Party.

"They're usually recaptured very quickly, but there is a glimmer of hope, at the next General Election, because this lot over here, they'll all be looking for jobs. But of course, most of them are unemployable now. Absolutely unemployable, unless they fancy a job as a bailiff."

He swiped: "Because, let's face it, all they've done it over the last few years, 18 months, gone into people's houses and taken stuff off them. Usually money from people's pockets. Absolutely disgraceful. They can shake their heads and grin if they want, they will not be forgiven. Mark my words.

"Just imagine their next job interview when they're at the job centre in a couple of years time. And the interviewer, the advisor says, 'what have you been doing for the past couple of years?' Well, I can name their achievements already. For the past few years, they've worked for an awful dictator and under his leadership, we have illegal migration totally out of control.

"Our streets are filling up with criminals, and if we live in Birmingham, it is filling up with rubbish as well. We've got rats the size of small dogs roaming around Birmingham feasting on tonnes of rubbish. They've closed pubs and restaurants, they've put 100,000 people who work in the hospitality industry on the dole."

Challenging Mr Anderson's argument, Conservative MP Kevin Hollinrake told the chamber: "I agree with his points on the hospitality industry and how difficult that is right now.

"But just back to the point in terms of the promises made in the last May elections in terms of his party's commitment, I've got a leaflet in front of me with his party leader on there, which was for the May elections, which says we're going to reduce waste and cut your taxes.

"I'll be the first person to admit governing is more difficult than it looks from the outside, but does he agree that was a set of unreasonable expectations among the electorate for those May elections last year?"

Mr Anderson responded: "Nowhere on the leaflet did it say on the council taxes, so maybe he should read the leaflet again.

"This Government has stolen money off the workers by not increasing the income tax threshold, something they promised they would do. And they've given this money to the shirkers. These are able bodied people, bone idle basically, they do not go to work. They refuse to go to work.

"In fact, they stay at home all day and sponge off the state. And they're shaking their heads, in fact, the only work some of these workers do is probably go out once every five years and deliver leaflets for this lot. It's great work if you can get it."

He concluded: "Our farmers have been attacked, our pensioners have been robbed, and we have been locking people up for social media posts.

"And let's not forget puberty blockers, these are medical trials on children. And everyone over there who supports this should hang their heads in shame."