A rugby league legend has challenged Lee Anderson to a fight after the Tory MP made an ill-advised joke about his home city of Bradford.
Earlier this week, Anderson was answering questions about the scrapping of the northern leg of the HS2 train line and its impact on local services. As links between Bradford and Leeds were mentioned, the Ashfield MP asked: “Is anyone from Bradford in here? Would you want to there quicker?”
He then added: “That’ll be on the front page of the Guardian tomorrow.” The comment from the MP for Ashfield triggered laughter from some members of the audience. However, residents of the West Yorkshire city were not as amused.
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They include Pryce, the former Great Britain, England, Bradford Bulls and St Helens back. The 41-year-old shared Channel 4’s clip of Anderson’s joke on X (formerly Twitter) and wrote: “As a Bradfordian I’d like to offer Lee Anderson a charity boxing match. All proceeds to a charity of his choice. Let’s make this happen twitter.”
The challenge has certainly gained some traction on social media and had been liked more than 5,000 times at the time of writing. There were also 1,200 reposts.
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“Thank you Leon [clapping emoji]. Has he taken you up on your offer yet,” asked one follower. Another quipped: “Think you’d have to get in a queue Leon.”
A third, alluding to derogatory comments Anderson has previously made about people who use food banks, said: “It'd have to be for the @TrussellTrust. Nothing would be sweeter than seeing him KO'd for a food bank.”
Another follower offered: “If you get injured prior to the bout I'd be happy to stand in for you.” A fifth said: “Kudos! Leon. Bradford is a good place with good people.”
