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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Rowena Mason, Diane Taylor and Sammy Gecsoyler

Downing Street backs Tory deputy chair over ‘back to France’ comments

Lee Anderson tucks his hand inside his jacket while walking down a street
Lee Anderson said asylum seekers destined for barge accommodation should go back to France if they don’t like it, but a charity said 95% of them arrived by plane, not small boat. Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/Zuma/Shutterstock

Downing Street has backed the Conservative deputy chair, Lee Anderson, after he said people seeking asylum should “fuck off back to France” if they did not like being housed on the Bibby Stockholm barge.

Anderson was criticised by opposition MPs and an anti-racism campaign group on Tuesday after telling the Daily Express that “people have had enough” of the transfer of asylum seekers to the barge being delayed by safety concerns and legal challenges.

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