Jim Davidson triggers backlash after slamming celebs for offering homes to refugees

British comedian Jim Davidson has caused controversy over comments slamming celebrities who have agreed to offer a Ukrainian refugee safety in their homes.

As close to 3 million Ukrainians have fled the country under bombardment from Russian forces, the government has begun a scheme allowing British people to offer up their homes to displaced refugees.

Under the Homes for Ukraine scheme, individuals, charities, community groups and businesses can support refugees in coming to the UK.

At the BAFTA awards held on Sunday 13th March, a number of celebrities voiced their interest in participating in the scheme.

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Speaking on the red carpet to Sky News, actor Benedict Cumberbatch said: “Everyone needs to do as much as they can, and I think already today the news has broken that there’s been a record number of people volunteering to take people into their homes.

“I hope to be part of that myself.”

While you’d hope most would praise him for opening up his house to someone in need, Davidson instead took the opportunity to slam him for “politically virtue-signal”.

During a debate about the “woke BAFtas” GB News, Davidson said: “Ask them if they'll take in a veteran that's homeless, that's fought in wars for our country.

“No, that's not leftie enough. I don't mind all these guys, they're all lefties. They're not in the real world.”

Reacting to Davidson’s comments, one person on Twitter wrote: “Jim Davidson is demanding to know if BAFTA celebs offering to help refugees would ‘Take in a Veteran?’

“This is the same Davidson who paid himself a £43,000 yearly salary and £11,000 expenses from his charity that was meant to be for veterans.”

Someone else wrote: “Hi! I'm a veteran, a ‘leftie’ and I work for homeless charity. Jim Davidson is a f**king dinosaur.”

It’s not Davidson’s first brush with controversy as he walked out of a discussion about racism with Diversity member Ashley Banjo.

The pair held the interview because of Davidson’s “racist” reaction to the dance group’s Black Lives Matter-themed performance on Britain’s Got Talent in 2020.

The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.

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