Controversial ex-Labour councillor, ex-Conservative MP and now Reform’s only MP, Lee Anderson accompanied Mark Butcher as he launched his election campaign as candidate for the Reform UK party in the forthcoming Blackpool South constituency by-election. Mr Butcher, a local businessman, who is noted for helping set up and run a soup kitchen, Amazing Grace, and more recently, The Big Red Night Bus to support homeless people in the town. This Parliamentary by-election has been prompted by the resignation of Scott Benton.
As he toured Blackpool in the battle bus, fifty-five-year-old Mark Butcher was visibly pleased to be accompanied by Lee Anderson, who defected to Reform UK from the Conservative Party earlier this month, for the party’s launch in the Blackpool South constituency. Together they smiled as they toured around Blackpool waving at passers-by from the open decked battle bus. The Guardian reported that the duo passed, ‘miles of shuttered shops and closed and dilapidated hotels and B&Bs.’
Mr Butcher said, ‘The real reason I’m standing, and it’s born out of frustration this, is I’m sick of seeing the neglect. I’m sick of seeing people treated unfairly. Not just homeless people. People who are living in poverty get treated terribly bad. There’s no dignity for them.
He continued, ‘We’ve helped thousands and thousands of people at Amazing Grace, some local, some from out of town. But it’s time we started to look after our own. I’ve got homeless people outside a four-star hotel that’s full of foreign immigrants. And those homeless people were told by Housing Options (the local council homeless service) that they couldn’t be helped because they’ve got no local connections. Do those foreign immigrants staying in that hotel have any local connections? Why do the same rules not apply to them as to our own people that we are refusing to assist? It’s the reality of it. The councils, both councils, the Conservative Party and the Labour Party are to blame for the absolute neglect that Blackpool South has endured. I’m in this to win it. I think we are definitely going to give them a bloody nose.
MP Anderson said, ‘It’s a pleasure to be here with Mark today because, and I’m going to keep saying it, I want my country back. It’s not just about Blackpool or this by-election. I’m sick to death of people in this country apologising for our history, our heritage, our culture. I’m sick to death of people ripping flags down, statues down. We’re fed up of our capital city being taken over by Islamists on a regular basis.
I’m not going to apologise to Sadiq Khan while I’ve got breath in my body.’
Blackpool South voters will head to the polls on 2nd May in a contest that will undoubtedly gain a great amount of national media attention.
