Conservative deputy chairman Lee Anderson launched his GB News show by spoon-feeding a fellow MP baked beans, naming a “wokey of the week”, and featuring as a “token lefty” an ex-Labour MP suspended after reports he sent lewd texts to a teenage girl.
The controversial MP for Ashfield in Nottinghamshire is being paid £100,000 a year for presenting the show.
The first episode of Lee Anderson’s Real World, which aired on Friday night, began with Mr Anderson declaring: “I’m so proud to be a British person, even prouder to be an Englishman.
Open your mouth, here comes the train— Lee Anderson MP
“Everything that’s good in this world started on this great island of ours.”
He has become the latest in a string of Tory MPs to host a GB News programme, joining his colleagues Jacob Rees-Mogg, Esther McVey and Philip Davies.
In one segment, Mr Anderson interviewed Brendan Clarke-Smith, the Tory MP for Bassetlaw, about claims a teacher at an East Sussex school pushed back against a pupil for refusing to accept her classmate identified as a cat.
Despite Rye College saying none of its pupils “identify as a cat or any other animal”, Mr Anderson quizzed Mr Clarke-Smith about the story and told him that although “we used to play cowboys and Indians”, “it just seems that we’re going a step too far”.
As they spoke over pints of beer, former teacher Mr Clarke-Smith bemoaned that “teachers used to be able to do this at lunchtime once upon a time”.
Mr Anderson proceeded to conduct a blind taste test of baked beans with his interviewee, after Mr Clarke-Smith recently told people struggling with soaring supermarket prices to buy value brands.
The Conservative Party deputy chairman ladled baked beans into his colleague’s mouth, saying: “Open your mouth, here comes the train.”
In another part of the show, Mr Anderson spoke to former Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage, again over pints.
Mr Farage said the Tory Government had “sabotaged Brexit”, without his remarks being challenged by Mr Anderson.
To give the view of a Remain voter in the EU referendum, Mr Anderson then introduced “token lefty in the corner” Simon Danczuk.
Mr Danczuk is a former Labour MP who was suspended by the party in 2015 over allegedly exchanging explicit messages with a 17-year-old girl.
Another segment consisted of Mr Danczuk nominating a “wokey of the week”, having been given the choice of Glastonbury-goers paying to glamp, the Rye College teacher at the centre of the self-identity claims, and LBC presenter James O’Brien. He chose the latter.
A former Labour councillor before joining the Tories, Mr Anderson has been no stranger to controversy since being elected to Westminster in 2019, having called for the return of the death penalty and claiming people on universal credit were not in poverty.
He has been dubbed “30p Lee” for claiming that meals could be prepared for that sum and suggesting people using food banks could not budget.
The former miner’s £100,000 fee for presenting the show makes him the highest earning among serving Tory MPs with programmes on GB News, although Mr Rees-Mogg is yet to disclose how much he is being paid by the channel.
Mr Anderson has been accused of hypocrisy after previously hitting out at MPs taking second jobs, saying in 2021: “We are paid handsomely for the job we do and if you need extra then you should really be looking for another job.”
