Reform UK MP Lee Anderson has launched a scathing attack on Sir Keir Starmer, branding the Prime Minister "totally delusional" and demanding he engages with ordinary citizens facing real hardships.
The Ashfield MP highlighted pressing local concerns, including 6,000 residents awaiting council housing, rough sleepers, and overcrowded hostels.
The comments come after Starmer was grilled yesterday by senior MPs on poverty, housing and welfare ahead of Parliament’s summer recess.
He admitted homelessness is a “real problem” and poverty a “deep-rooted issue”, but said it would take time to fix. Dame Caroline Dinenage asked “that’s it?” after a vague pledge of support for the charity sector.
GB NEWS
|The Ashfield MP highlighted pressing local concerns, including 6,000 residents awaiting council housing, rough sleepers, and overcrowded hostels
Speaking to GB News, Anderson said: "It beggars belief. It's beyond belief, actually. The man is totally delusional.
"He needs to get out of that place more and spend some time in places like ours, in the real world where we've got 6,000 people on the council house waiting list, some people sleeping rough, and our hostels are chock-a-block.
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"This man is absolutely clueless. He should come and speak to some real people in the real world, you know?
"And to sit there in front of his own chair who is actually a Labour Party member and come out with that nonsense?
"She must’ve walked away from that meeting yesterday shaking her head, thinking: ‘Oh my goodness, what kind of Prime Minister have I got in this country?’"
The Government has recently unveiled what ministers describe as a ground breaking sanctions framework aimed at dismantling people-smuggling operations, with Foreign Secretary David Lammy announcing the measures would freeze assets and impose travel restrictions on criminal networks.
Ministers plan to reveal dozens of targets on Wednesday, including gang leaders and equipment suppliers, who will face exclusion from Britain's financial system and entry bans.
The initiative forms a central element of Starmer's strategy to combat illegal Channel crossings by disrupting criminal organisations.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper called the sanctions a "decisive step" that would enable authorities to "target the assets and operations of people-smugglers wherever they operate, cutting off their funding and dismantling their networks piece by piece".
The announcement follows Starmer's recent agreement with France establishing a reciprocal arrangement for migrant returns, whereby illegal arrivals would be exchanged for an equivalent number of vetted asylum seekers.
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|Keir Starmer was grilled yesterday by senior MPs on poverty, housing and welfare ahead of Parliament’s summer recess
However, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp dismissed the sanctions as inadequate, stating: "The truth is you don't stop the Channel crossings by freezing a few bank accounts in Baghdad or slapping a travel ban on a dinghy dealer in Damascus."
The Conservative MP warned of a "public safety crisis" affecting women and girls, highlighting that "swathes of young men are arriving daily, in boats bought online, guided by traffickers who laugh at our laws and cash in on our weakness."
Government data reveals over 20,000 individuals crossed the Channel in small boats during the first half of 2025, representing a nearly 50 per cent surge from the previous year.