THE Scottish Tories have remained silent on Lee Anderson’s anti-migrant comments.
The Conservative Party’s deputy chair has come in for criticism after telling the Express that any migrants with concerns about the Bibby Stockholm barge to “f*** off back to France”.
The National approached the Scottish Conservatives to see if they had any response to the comments which have attracted fierce criticism.
The party was given a deadline of 3pm to respond but failed to do so.
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Senior Tories have however jumped to Anderson’s defence, including Justice Secretary Alex Chalk.
He told LBC that although Anderson (below) expressed himself “in salty terms, his indignation is well placed”.
Downing Street later confirmed to Sky News that Chalk was speaking on behalf of the UK Government when defending the comments.
Many others have been critical of Anderson though, including the SNP, Alba Party and Liberal Democrats.
Alba’s general secretary Chris McEleny said: “Lee Anderson might fancy himself as King Lear but he’s more like the village fool.
“What he doesn’t seem to understand is that, although this rhetoric might get him lots of attention on social media, and appeal to three or four thousand of his constituents, it’s the other ten or so thousand traditional Tory voters he should be worried about, as there’s more chance of them staying at home than there is re-electing him.”
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McEleny also warned the Labour Party against “falling for this “anti-asylum seeker trap”.
Thus far, both Labour and Scottish Labour have remained silent on Anderson’s remarks.
However, shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock has said the party will maintain the use of barges to house asylum seekers on the Bibby Stockholm should the party come to power at the next General Election.
Anderson did however clash with suspended Labour MP Diane Abbott who said that the remarks were a “new low even for the Tories”.
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