Lee Anderson has been ordered to apologise to the Commons for breaking bullying and harassment rules after a parliamentary watchdog found he twice swore at a security officer when his pass did not work.
The Reform UK MP allegedly told the guard “f*** off, everyone opens the door to me, you are the only one” when he was told he needed to have his pass checked at the gates to the Westminster estate.
A complaint about the incident on November 3 was upheld by Parliament’s standards commissioner.
Mr Anderson initially appealed against the finding to the Independent Expert Panel, but the panel dismissed his case.
Since then, he has “accepted the Commissioner’s finding that he had sworn at the complainant and that his behaviour had been a breach of the bullying and harassment policy”, the panel said.
It said: “He had also expressed a desire to apologise. The sub-panel accepted Mr Anderson’s evidence that he had faced ‘challenging personal circumstances’ on the day in question and his ‘unacceptable behaviour’ was ‘not planned or premeditated’.”
In its findings, the watchdog highlighted the "power imbalance" between the prominent MP and the security officer and noted the importance laid out in Parliament's behaviour code not to "abuse" his influence or authority.
Mr Anderson should apologise both to the complainant in writing and to the House of Commons by way of a personal statement, the watchdog concluded.
At the time of the incident, Mr Anderson was deputy chairman of the Conservative Party.
Mr Anderson was kicked off the Tory benches was over his false claims that London mayor Sadiq Khan and the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer were "controlled by Islamists".
He later quit the Tories and defected to Reform UK in March 2024..
He was re-elected to the Commons at July’s general election as a candidate for his new party, which is led by Nigel Farage.
He was given the nickname “30p Lee” after comments in Parliament when he suggested people needed to learn how to cook and budget “properly”.
“We can make a meal for about 30p a day and this is cooking from scratch,” he said.
Mr Anderson has been contacted for comment.
