Anderson has thrown his toys out of the pram
Yesterday, anti-Brexit campaigner Steve Bray was cleared of the “noisy protest” charges brought against him, in what most media outlets have hailed as a victory for free speech and the right to protest.
Not Reform MP Lee Anderson, though. Anderson, who regularly hurls insults at the Stop Brexit Man, such as calling him a “parasite” and a “scrounger” has this time called him a “career activist”.
Anderson has also told the Daily Express that there should be greater transparency about where Bray gets his funding from.
Anderson said: “As well as being a public nuisance, Steve Bray is also known as a sponging parasite who relies on dimwitted do-gooders to subsidise his lifestyle.”
“I suspect Bray is probably a person of interest to the HMRC as are many others who scrounge an existence through political campaigning. Its time for transparency and people like Bray should publish all their donations just like a charity has to.
“I suspect he has trousered hundreds of thousands of pounds. It’s about time he spent some of it on new clothes and toiletries.”
In a post on X, Best for Britain noted that most outlets, including the Spectator, had welcomed the not guilty verdict.
The post said: “Not the Express and Reform UK, though. Those ‘warriors for free speech’ continue to underline they only want freedom for speech with which they agree.”
Stop Brexit Man, who represented himself, was found not guilty of defying a police ban by blasting anti-Tory and anti-Brexit remixes of The Muppet Show and the Darth Vader theme outside Parliament.
Ruling on Bray’s case in court yesterday, the judge said: “He is described, virtually accused of being ‘fixated’ – he’s entitled to be. How he chooses to express those views is for him. Lampooning the gov’t through satire is a long tradition in this country.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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