A political activist from Port Talbot has been branded a "parasite" and "a tramp" by a Tory MP after he questioned him about his support for Boris Johnson. Protestor Steve Bray approached Conservative MP Lee Anderson outside Parliament on Wednesday (April 20) to ask him if he would continue to back the Prime Minister after he was fined for his involvement in the Partygate scandal, but found himself on the receiving end of an angry verbal tirade.
Asked by Mr Bray, also known as Stop Brexit Guy, if he would continue to "support a liar," Mr Anderson, who was elected MP for Ashfield in 2019, responded: "At least I've got a job to lose, you haven't got one." You can get the latest political news and analysis from across Wales and beyond here.
Mr Bray - who has campaigned against Brexit and the Conservative government outside Parliament since 2017 - told the politician he did have a job, which was "annoying and holding people like you to account". However, Mr Anderson, who was also accompanied by guests and police officers at the time of the encounter, retorted: "You're nothing but a parasite."
He continued: "You're a scrounger. Why are you here every day dressed like a tramp? Why don't you get a job?," prompting Mr Bray to ask him if he was being "derogatory" towards people without jobs. Mr Anderson - a staunch Brexiteer who last year boycotted England's Euro 2020 campaign in protest against players taking the knee - responded: "I'll rephrase that - if you smartened yourself up you'd make a good tramp."
After the Tory MP told Mr Bray he should apply for a job, the activist said he was self-employed, and had supporters who were willing to crowdfund his work. "Do you know why?," he asked Mr Anderson. "Because they cannot stand liars, cheats, charlatans, fraudsters, and con-artists....in office.
"They are sick of your lying a******e of a Prime Minister." In response, Mr Anderson told Mr Bray to "stop claiming benefits and get a proper job," before walking off. The activist told the MP that he didn't claim benefits and instead suggested: "You're the one who is going to be needing a job, very soon".
Following the encounter, Mr Bray told The Independent : "Lee Anderson is very derogatory about those less fortunate in life, the fact he tries to imply I am a tramp and on benefits is insulting those people that actually are. This is what the Tories generally feel about those without wealth, they feel that they are superior."
A rare coin dealer, Mr Bray became an accidental activist aged 48 after becoming sick of watching the slowly unfolding Brexit situation from his home in south Wales. He decided to take some time off work and head to London to protest about Brexit. He initially slept rough in Hyde Park to save money, but now stays with fellow activists he met after travelling to the capital.
Ever since September, 2017, on every day that parliament has sat, he has spent seven hours a day at a spot on the pavement at Westminster’s Old Palace Yard, telling anyone who cares to listen to his opinion that the UK is heading for disaster. While Brexit has now happened, he insists that "the situation now is far graver".
"We have a government out of control just hacking away at our democracy," he said. "A government that serves only itself and its sycophants. We cannot underestimate what we are up against here, we cannot lose sight of what we stand to lose, it is going to take all of us to stand up to & against this government of deceit.
"The rest of the world are looking on in awe as our United Kingdom implodes. It is down to each and every one of us to make damn sure that does not happen, as ultimately, we pay the price, our children pay the price and so do theirs. Let us make this government fear the people they serve, not the people fear what this government does."
This latest encounter is not the first time Mr Bray and Mr Anderson have come to verbal blows, with a video emerging last summer of a previous meeting between the two, in which the MP again referred to the activist as a "parasite," in what Mr Bray called a "torrent of vile abuse".
Last month, Mr Bray also spoke to Welsh MP David TC Davies and asked him if he was going to repay the £750 an hour he received for appearing on Russia Today, which is Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s propaganda vehicle. In response, the MP for Monmouth called Mr Bray a "disgrace", a "nutcase" and told him to "get a job".
