To his critics, Reform UK MP Lee Anderson is “Lee-Anderthal” — a nickname that underlines one thing few would dispute: he is not known for soft-edged liberalism.
So when he travelled yesterday to northern France’s largest migrant camp, a Reform UK source predicted in advance that Mr Anderson would cause “action” by challenging charity workers who provide food and advice to thousands of migrants hoping to reach Britain.
“He’ll be going up to female volunteers in their 20s and say: ‘Don’t you know what these migrants do to young women like you in England?’” I was told.
But at the sprawling camp at Grande-Synthe, near Dunkirk — now larger than ever and pitched beside a flyover — the encounter proved less confrontational than advertised.
Standing beside a smouldering heap of burning plastic waste, its acrid smoke catching in our throats only inches from occupied tents, Mr Anderson appeared unexpectedly gentle as he handed a packet of Smints to a ten-year-old boy.
Onlookers drew breath as the slight child smiled shyly and replied: “Thank you, please can you put out the fire?”
The flames, though, were already too fierce. Even Mr Anderson’s burly eight-man security team could do little. Relief came when a fire engine arrived moments later and began tackling the blaze.
Removing the camp itself is a far more complicated task.
Sprawling: Reform MP Lee Anderson stands in the ‘town centre’ of the ever-growing camp for migrants near Dunkirk
Offering: Mr Anderson offers mints to a boy living in the squalid camp
Rude: Hassan, from Somalia, threatens security and Mr Anderson at the camp
Mr Anderson had last been there three years ago and noted it had grown significantly. The Mail last visited in April. It has grown since then, too.
Now there are 50 portable toilets in the grubby makeshift ‘town centre’ of a camp of hundreds of tents over acres of copses and waste ground.
Most occupants are young men, but Mr Anderson noted a rising number of women and children, too – with several pushchairs evident. Free food was served yesterday to hundreds in long queues. Stallholders sold more meals, SIM cards, phone chargers, cigarettes, bottles of juice.
And Mr Anderson engaged with anyone who spoke English – including agitated Hassan, 22, from Somalia, who called the politician a ‘motherf*****’.
That was after a gift of two cigarettes from security had calmed him down from threatening to ‘stab’ them as well as ‘kidnap’ the only female member of the Reform group.
‘I’m coming to England,’ he told Mr Anderson after he inquired of his plans. ‘I need to be in UK. I’ve paid €1,200 [£1,000]. I’m going to Scotland – I like it, Edinburgh.
‘I’m not going to be a billionaire, I’m not going to be “big big”, I want a normal life.’
Turning venomous again, and clearly aware the Reform politician does not promote dinghy crossings, Hassan gestured with a mutilated finger lacking a tip as he continued: ‘I don’t like what you are doing.
‘We need food. We don’t eat. You don’t need to eat – you just come with car, you go with car, it’s easy for you.
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‘I’m black, I’m different to you.’
Mr Anderson reflected: ‘On a human level, you do feel sorry for this chap. But he’s going to be trouble – and cost us a lot of money.
‘Do we want this sort of person in our country? I don’t want him in my village – most people in our country wouldn’t want him living in an HMO [House in Multiple Occupation] near them.’
Lee Anderson talks to camera as migrant becomes aggressive and tries to stop reform bus from leaving
Free food was served to hundreds of migrants who stood in long queues at the camp
The Reform UK MP visited the bigger-than-ever migrant camp beside a flyover at Grande-Synthe
A group of young men pictured in the hige migrat camp in northern France
Anderson said the camp had grown significantly since his last visit three years prior
Mr Anderson also found it hard to remonstrate with Amir, 32, who said he had fled violent Iraqi militias, left his wife and children in Istanbul and was now preparing to cross to England.
‘Why doesn’t he stay in France?’ asked Mr Anderson through a translator, a ripped Vietnamese banknote fluttering at their feet. ‘They won’t give me papers,’ said Amir. Then why not stay in Turkey? ‘They accepted my family – they wouldn’t accept me.’
Asked about the danger of the Channel crossing, Amir added: ‘I would rather die in the water than die in Iraq.’
Smints and empathy aside, Mr Anderson was unbending in his belief that the dinghies must be stopped – and blasted the charities supporting the ‘multi-billion pound trade’ centred on migrants.
He spoke just hours after Reform promised its ‘Operation Fortress’ to stop the crossings with a massive Royal Navy force taking dinghy-loads of migrants straight back. France has rejected the plans.
But Reform learned itself yesterday it is not always easy to repel uninvited guests. As the Reform media minibus prepared to leave, a migrant repeatedly tried to step through the open door and join us, saying in Arabic: ‘Take me to London.’
Even those burly security men struggled to dissuade him as he tried again and again. Only swiftly shutting the doors and driving off fast worked.
Not so easy in the middle of the Channel.
