Lee Anderson ordered for apologise after Reform UK MP told Parliament security guard to 'f*** off'
6 November 2024, 14:01 | Updated: 6 November 2024, 14:04
Lee Anderson has been ordered to apologise after telling a Parliament security guard to 'f*** off'.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
The Reform UK MP was found to have broken bullying and harassment rules by Parliament's standards watchdog after he twice swore at a security guard when his parliamentary pass did not work.
Mr Anderson is alleged to have said to the officer “f*** off, everyone opens the door to me, you are the only one” when he was told he needed to have his card checked at the gates to the Westminster estate.
The guard then repeated that the pass needed to be examined and Mr Anderson again approached them, saying: “F*** you, I have a train to catch”. He then walked out of the search post.
Read More: Badenoch calls for Labour to apologise for Trump comments in first PMQs as Tory leader
A complaint about the altercation was launched and subsequently upheld on November 3 by Parliament's standards commissioner.
Mr Anderson appealed against the finding to the Independent Expert Panel, but his case was dismissed on the basis that it “failed to raise any substantive grounds”.
He has since “accepted the commissioner’s finding that he had sworn at the complainant and that his behaviour had been a breach of the bullying and harassment policy”, the panel said.
It added: “He had also expressed a desire to apologise.“
The Ashford MP accepted he was “upset, impatient and angry” but not “aggressive”. He cited "challenging personal circumstances".
He must now apologise to the House of Commons and put an apology in writing to the security guard.
The watchdog also highlighted the “power imbalance” between the prominent MP and the security officer and noted the importance laid out in Parliament’s behaviour code not to “abuse” his influence or authority.
At the time of the incident, the MP had been deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, a position from which he later resigned to vote against the government on an amendment to its Rwanda asylum plan.
Mr Anderson was later stripped of the Tory whip in February after refusing to apologise for stating that “Islamists” had “got control” of London Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan, and in March defected to Reform UK.
He has served as the party’s chief whip since July.
LBC contacted Mr Anderson and Reform UK for comment but they did not immediately respond.
