European Movement chair Mike Galsworthy has led offers to fund a one-way ticket to Orkney after Lee Anderson pledged to relocate to the Scottish archipelago if the UK reverses Brexit.
The deputy Tory Party chair, who recently called for asylum-seekers to be sent to the remote islands while they wait for their applications to be processed, said he will move there himself if Britain decides to rejoin the European Union.
Asked by Patrick Christys on GB News what he made of comments from the local MP Alistair Carmichael, who blasted Anderson for showing “disdain” towards his constituents, he said his father had been stationed on Orkney while in the military and claimed “people like” Carmichael did not want people seeking asylum “in their back yard” despite “bleating on” about accepting more refugees.
The Tory MP was then faced with remarks by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen that younger generations should seek to “fix” the mistake of Brexit.
Jarring with the conciliatory moves made by Rishi Sunak in his relationship with the German EU chief, the Tory deputy chair said it was the generation which fought the Nazis who had “fixed the problems in Europe”, adding: “She needs to shut up.”
Asked if he believed the UK will rejoin the EU in his lifetime, he said: “I hope not because if we do I’m moving to Orkney isles.”
Put to him that Mr Carmichael may object, the Tory MP said: “Well that’ll teach him, won’t it … I’m going to live in the Orkney Isles and stand for parliament in the Orkney Isles.”
Offers to pay for a one-way ticket there have flooded in since, with Mike Galsworthy leading the charge.
Posting on X (formerly Twitter), he wrote:
“Should Brexit be reversed, as it will, and Lee Anderson as a result, wishes to move to Orkney isles, then I, Mike Galsworthy, am willing to fund that trip – unless there is sufficient outrage from the people of Orkney that they feel we must endeavour collectively to offer Lee Anderson another location.”
Ta-ra, Lee!
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