Reform UK MP Lee Anderson has has told Javier Milei to "get a grip" after the Argentinian president made yet another vow to bring the Falklands under the country's control.
The South American leader pledged to establish a diplomatic “roadmap” for the United Kingdom to hand over the Falkland Islands to the nation in a speech on Tuesday.
In Buenos Aires, the leader promised fewer words and more hardline action - but he has since come under fire from more radical Argentines for not going far enough.
Milei said: "I want to reiterate our unwavering claim for the islands, and I commit that during our government we will have a clear roadmap so that the Malvinas return to Argentine hands."
Lee Anderson blasted the speech
GB News
Speaking to GB News Anderson slammed the idea as a "harebrained scheme."
Anderson said: "He needs to get a grip, the land has been ours for what, hundreds of years. I mean, why does he want the island? There's nothing there apart from a few hundred Brits and a load of penguins.
"I don't know why he's doing it, to be honest with you. We lost a lot of lives, nearly 300 men in the early 80s and it would be a travesty for it to happen again.
"He probably needs to sort the problems out in his own backyard before he starts poking his nose in ours."
When asked "if push came to shove" the British army should help in the Falklands, Anderson said: "I would hope it wouldn't come to that. I would hate to see our young men and women going over to foreign lands to risk their lives.
"But it is a British colony. They're British people on that island, and they deserve our support. If push comes to shove, we should defend them."
The leader vowed for fewer words and more hardline action
GETTY
During a visit to the archipelago in February this year, Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron said the UK would "protect and defend" the Falklands for as long as they "want to be part of the UK family".
The president's speech fell on "Malvinas Day" - what Argentina and much of the Spanish-speaking world calls the Falklands - on Tuesday, commemorating the 42nd anniversary of the start of the war - the day Argentine forces invaded the islands.
When running for president in late 2023, Milei adopted a relatively moderate line, saying the country should "make every effort to recover the islands through diplomatic channels".
A spokesperson for the British Prime Minister has previously said that the issue had been "settled decisively some time ago" and that the UK would "proactively defend" the islanders' right to self-determination.
Milei used his Tuesday address to call for Argentina to express his commitment to ramping up the country's international trade efforts - but the president couldn't resist referencing the islands.
He said: "For a sovereign nation to be respected, it must be a protagonist of international trade" - and slammed prior left-wing governments in Argentina as "serial defaulters" whose claims to the UK-administered territory should not have been taken seriously.
But Milei's critics used the anniversary to blast the president, who has expressed his admiration for Margaret Thatcher in the past; Buenos Aires province governor Axel Kicillof said: "You cannot honour or idolise Margaret Thatcher who treacherously ordered the killing of Argentine soldiers," adding the ominous phrase: "Sovereignty is not just speech."