Keir Starmer joked that he didn’t realise how “good at stand-up comedy” Lee Anderson is after the Reform MP had the Commons in laughter.
During Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, the Ashfield MP stood up to ask Starmer a question.
When 30p Lee accused Labour of “dog whistle politics”, the irony wasn’t lost on much of the Commons, with laughter ringing around the chamber.
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This wasn’t his first laughable comment though, as he the spoke of Reform-led councils “identifying savings” and his party “cracking on with the day job.”
Speaker Lindsay Hoyle even had to intervene and call for calm such was the laughter from the benches.
Eventually, Anderson got round to his question, asking if the PM if he would “be a man” and guarantee that cancelled local elections from 2025 will go ahead next year.
In response, Starmer joked that he “didn’t realise” Anderson was “quote so good at stand-up comedy,” before highlighting the hypocrisy of a Reform MP speaking of dog-whistle politics.
“Last week, his leader said he didn’t have time to condemn the racist comments of his fellow MP for Runcorn,” Starmer told the house.
“He also said he didn’t have time to condemn comments calling children in care ‘evil. I wonder if he can ask his leader next door to him whether he’s got time for his explanation for the stories in today’s papers.”
The reference to “stories in today’s papers” would seem to be regarding a report from the Guardian accusing Nigel Farage of racist and anti-semitic behaviour during his time at school.
Farage denies the allegations.