LEE LEAVES
‘I want my country back’, ex-Tory MP Lee Anderson jumps ship to Reform UK – weeks after Rishi Sunak kicked him out
The New Conservatives have issued a stark warning
RED Wall firebrand Lee Anderson jumped ship to Reform today - declaring “I want my country back.”
The suspended Tory MP for Ashfield defected on the day the Conservatives slumped to their lowest poll rating since the week Liz Truss resigned - sparking fresh calls for Rishi Sunak to change course.
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Anderson will sit as the first MP to represent the party that was born out of Nigel Farage’s disbanded Brexit Party.
The former Tory deputy chairman was suspended from the party two weeks ago for claiming London Mayor Sadiq Khan was under the thumb of “Islamists” and refusing orders to apologise.
But he claimed yesterday it was his elderly parents telling him they could no longer vote for him as a Conservative that finally forced him to switch sides.
Tory MPs heaped the blame directly on the Prime Minister for the blow, saying: “We can not pretend any longer that 'the plan is working'. We need to change course urgently."
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The powerful New Conservatives starkly warned: "The responsibility for Lee’s defection sits with the Conservative Party.
Over the last year or so I’ve had to do a lot of soul-searching on my political journey,
Lee Anderson
"We have failed to hold together the coalition of voters who gave us an 80 seat majority in 2019."
At a hastily arranged Westminster press conference on Monday morning alongside Reform leader Richard Tice, Anderson accused the government of “stifling free speech”.
And he branded it a “shocker” that he was disciplined for “speaking my mind.”
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“Over the last year or so I’ve had to do a lot of soul-searching on my political journey,” he added. “I don’t expect much in politics other than to be able to speak my mind.”
And he warned “many of my colleagues in that place, in the Conservative Party, do back me on this privately.”
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“Obviously they won’t put their head above the parapet, I don’t expect them to, but more importantly people around the country and around the world have been messaging me, sending me emails saying stick to your guns Lee, we agree with you."
He said: “My parents are both nearly 80 and they get it, and I must not let them down."
Reform UK has offered me the chance to speak out in Parliament on behalf of millions of people up and down the country who feel that they’re not being listened to
Lee Anderson
“It is no secret that I’ve been talking to my friends in Reform for a while.
"And Reform UK has offered me the chance to speak out in Parliament on behalf of millions of people up and down the country who feel that they’re not being listened to.
“I’m prepared to gamble on myself, as I know from my mailbag how many people in this country support Reform UK and what they have to say.
"And like millions of people up and down the country, all I want is my country back.”
COMMENT
By Harry Cole
LEE Anderson was the embodiment of the 2019 political realignment that saw the Tories turn the electoral map from red to blue.
The straight-talking miner's "political journey" took him from Labour councillor to elected on Boris Johnson's Red Wall wave.
And it summed up the jump millions of voters made across Labour's former heartlands.
But now like millions of voters who backed BoJo in 2019 he has no truck for Rishi Sunak but no time for Keir Starmer.
Instead, like many out there, he's looking for a genuine alternative.
If Reform can get their clownish antics in gear, that could be an existential problem for the squabbling Tories.
It's body-blow for Sunak too who helped make Anderson the political celebrity he is.
Often accused of being out of touch and aloof to the Red Wall, the PM was a desperate for some grit in his oyster.
Despite warnings it could blow up in his face, the PM made Anderson a superstar deputy party chairman.
And so it came to pass...
Adding that other Tory MPs were considering making the jump, Anderson said: “You sort of live in hope that things are going to get better and they’ve not got better.
"The Conservative Party is, what, 25 points behind, probably, in the polls.
“We keep saying that’s going to close nearer the election, well every day’s nearer the election… we drop a point every week.”
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Last night the Conservatives hit back: "We regret he’s made this decision.
"Voting for Reform can’t deliver anything apart from a Keir Starmer-led Labour Government that would take us back to square one - which means higher taxes, higher energy costs, no action on channel crossings, and uncontrolled immigration.”
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