Opinion: Lee Anderson's Weekly Column
Last week we at Ashfield Reform UK launched our campaign to stop Houses of Multiple Occupancy (HMOs) in Ashfield.
Reform UK recently successfully passed a motion calling for the introduction of Article 4 Directions at Bassetlaw District Council. District Councillors decided unanimously to invoke Article 4 of the General Permitted Development Order 2015, which will give powers to the Council to stop HMOs. It will do this by removing permitted development rights for dwellings to become HMOs housing 3 to 6 people, so that planning permission would be required.
For reasons only known to them, Ashfield District Council (ADC) has not done the same. Our Reform UK Councillors at ADC have requested an Extraordinary Meeting to force a vote on introducing these measures in Ashfield. If the Ashfield Independent Councillors care about residents, they'll follow our lead. If not, I can only assume that they are on the side of Serco who are profiting from putting illegal migrants into HMOs.
The fact that this motion passed unanimously in Labour-run Bassetlaw District Council shows this is not a political issue. It would be indefensible for Ashfield District Council to not follow suit. To that end, I have written to ADC Leader Cllr Zadrozny to urge him to support our campaign. We have also launched a petition to put pressure on him and his party to support our campaign, which you can find at www.ashfieldreformuk.com/stop-hmos-in-ashfield
Last week, I unearthed some shocking new statistics from the Home Office that show a striking imbalance in the number of asylum seekers being housed in council areas ran by different political parties.
Lib Dem and Green Party ran authorities are on average housing less than half as many asylum seekers as Tory and Labour councils. This is despite both the Lib Dems and the Greens proudly pledging their support for asylum seekers, promising to introduce easier asylum routes in the General Election last year.
If the 'refugees welcome' brigade have given their democratic backing of these party's policies by electing them, then they should be taking more in. Meanwhile, areas like Ashfield, that have voted time and time again against mass migration, are being forced to tolerate these illegal migration sites. It's madness. These people should not be here in this country to begin with. We need to detain, and deport.
Reform UK have hit another milestone last week. We lead the national opinion polls by 15%, with Reform UK at 33%, Labour at 18%, and the Tories at 17%. According to Electoral Calculus, if a General Election were held tomorrow with these figures, Reform UK would win with a majority of 210 MPs in the House of Commons. This would be the biggest landslide victory since the war-time coalition Government led by Winston Churchill.
The people of this country are sick to death with what is happening to it. History will look back at Keir Starmer as one of the worst Prime Ministers in modern Britain.