A Green Party candidate in the UK has become an internet sensation after her hilariously contorted facial expression during a debate with a right-wing councillor over immigration and housing went viral, sparking a flood of memes online.
The Debate That Sparked It All
Sarah Wakefield, a Manchester City councillor and food charity executive, appeared on a special edition of BBC Question Time on Thursday night for the by-election later this month in the northwest England seat of Makerfield, in Greater Manchester. Robert Kenyon, a plumber and recently elected Reform UK councillor in Wigan, is one of 14 candidates contesting the June 18 by-election.
In response to an audience question about housing development on the local green belt, Mr Kenyon pointed the finger at immigration. Like Australia, the UK is facing its own housing crisis. In 2024-25, the UK added 208,600 net additional dwellings, well below the roughly 300,000 needed each year to keep up with demand. National rents rose 3.5 per cent in the 12 months to April, while homelessness is at a record high with 134,760 households living in temporary accommodation as of September 2025, up 7 per cent year-on-year.
“If you get an extra 10 million people coming into the country in a short period of time, you’re going to have the demand for housing and renting houses is going to go through the roof,” Mr Kenyon said. “So your rental prices go up, housing demand goes up, house prices go up, people can’t buy a house who are just getting on the property ladder at the start. So for me, immigration plays a massive part in the demand for new houses.”
Wakefield's Viral Reaction
Making a bemused face, Ms Wakefield said the “idea of blaming our housing crisis on immigration is absolutely wild to me, actually”. “Well that says more about you, because we’ve got an extra 10, 20 million people come in the country … do you not think an extra 10 million people is going to have an effect on housing?” Mr Kenyon said. “Do you think that if we lock down our borders we’re going to solve the housing crisis? Is that going to solve it?” Ms Wakefield asked. “The thing is, the more people you have in a country, the more houses you’re going to need,” Mr Kenyon said. “Oh, he’s really good at explaining things, isn’t he?” Ms Wakefield appealed to the audience, to laughter and applause.
Mr Kenyon’s figures were off by a few million, although the UK has seen a population boom in recent years driven by immigration, including hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers crossing the English Channel in small boats. Since 2018 there have been 200,000 small boat channel crossings, according to Migration Watch UK. Net migration to the UK dropped to 171,000 in 2025, down 48 per cent from a year earlier, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Net migration peaked at 944,000 in the 12 months to March 2023. Prior to Brexit, most immigrants to the UK came from eastern and central Europe. Since the 2016 referendum, migration from non-European Union countries has exploded.
Viral Clips and Memes
Clips of the BBC Question Time exchange have racked up millions of views online, with one social media user calling it “the exact moment that Sarah Wakefield became a meme”. “You’d pull the same expression if you had to sit next to a Reform candidate spouting absolute nonsense,” the Bradford Green Party wrote on X. Another user wrote, “The look the class makes when the dumb kid says ‘Sir, I don’t get it.’” Others, however, described her as “smug” and “patronising”. “Green Party candidate and facial contortionist expert Sarah Wakefield can’t seem to grasp the very basics of supply and demand,” one said. “Reform man Rob does his best to be helpful to the Greenie, but she still doesn’t get it. Who said that BBC don’t produce world class comedy anymore.” Another wrote, “This is a female shame technique. She’s attempting to signal to the audience that the guy is ‘weird’. It’s how the entire media apparatus operates.”
Background Controversy
It comes after Ms Wakefield was lambasted by Top Gear and Clarkson’s Farm star Jeremy Clarkson earlier this month over materials published on her charity’s website which he said concluded that “farming is racist … and that the whole food industry needs to decolonised”. Eating Better, an environmental charity where Ms Wakefield serves as executive director, has organised workshops encouraging participants to adopt “decolonial decision-making” and establish “intentionally inclusive spaces” within the British agricultural sector, GB News reports. The charity also circulated a report last year by American activist Caroline J Sumlin that examined “white supremacy culture” in farming and proposed methods to confront “colonial power and legacies” within the food industry. Writing in The Sunday Times, Clarkson said the Greens were “fielding a candidate who, on the face of it, is completely mad” and has a “fully fledged degree in loony leftery”.
The By-Election Context
The Makerfield by-election was triggered by the resignation of Labour MP Josh Simons to make way for Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, as part of the ongoing leadership crisis facing deeply unpopular Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Mr Simons announced last month that he would step down to allow Mr Burnham, a former senior minister under Prime Minister Gordon Brown, to enter parliament and challenge Mr Starmer for leadership of the Labour Party. The race is expected to come down to Mr Kenyon and Mr Burnham.
Meanwhile, Mr Kenyon has faced scrutiny over his past social media comments on issues including Brexit, abortion and Ukraine. Speaking to the BBC last week, Mr Kenyon admitted making “crass” comments online but said he was not a “career politician” and “not a polished professional”. Mr Kenyon argued people would “feel listened to” if he became an MP and that they wanted a “local lad” to represent them, someone who lives in the area and “knows the people and is well in tune with that”.
