“As I understand it Mosley dumped his Labour tendencies when the world of fascism beckoned - remind you of anyone 30p...?”
Reform UK MP Lee Anderson sparked ridicule online this week for a post on X that read:
“Oswald Mosley? Wasn’t he a Labour MP?”
The remark prompted mockery, both for its historical illiteracy and political irony.
Oswald Mosley is Britain’s most notorious fascist. He is remembered not for his brief association with Labour, but for founding and leading the British Union of Fascists (BUF) in the 1930s, a movement defined by violent antisemitism, authoritarianism, and admiration for Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
Under Mosley’s leadership, the BUF spearheaded a campaign of intimidation, harassment, and violence against Britain’s Jewish population, particularly in London’s East End, which was home to around 100,000 Jews at the time.
Mosley’s early parliamentary career is more complicated than Anderson’s comment suggested, and that complexity is precisely what critics seized upon.
Mosley entered Parliament in 1918 at the age of just 22, becoming the youngest MP of the time after being elected Conservative MP for Harrow. He later broke with the Conservatives, sat as an independent, and eventually joined the Labour Party. However, his time in Labour was brief and ended when his authoritarian ideas and impatience with democratic processes found little support.
By the early 1930s, Mosley had abandoned mainstream politics altogether and turned towards fascism, founding the BUF and modelling it on the regimes of Hitler and Mussolini.
Critics were quick to point out that Anderson’s comment was especially awkward given his own political journey. Like Mosley, Anderson has changed party allegiances multiple times over his career, having moved between Labour, the Conservatives and Reform UK.
He was also briefly classified as an independent MP after losing the Conservative whip in February 2024, prior to officially joining Reform UK.
The parallels were not lost on social media users. One commenter wrote:
“Mosley had a go with everyone. Remind you of anyone Lee?”
Another mocked: “Anderson was a Labour councillor too. Same journey.”
“As I understand it Mosley dumped his labour tendencies when the world of fascism beckoned – remind you of anyone 30p…?” said one user.
The National Rejoin March joined in, saying: “He was a Labour MP, before moving to the fascists. Just like you, Lee.”
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