Ex-Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson defects to Reform UK after PM booted him out in ‘Islamophobic’ row
LEE Anderson has defected to Reform UK weeks after he was kicked out the Tory Party over his attack on London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
Party leader Richard Tice said he has found in Mr Anderson a “champion of the Red Wall for Reform UK”.
Meanwhile, the Ashfield MP said the Nigel Farage-founded party will allow him to speak on behalf of people “who feel that they’re not being listened to”.
Speaking at a press conference in central London, he added: "People will say that I’ve took a gamble.
"And 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.”
He also said a major reason for his switch was his elderly parents' insistence that they could not vote for him unless he made the change.
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He said: “My parents are both nearly 80 and they get it, and I must not let them down."
The former deputy chairman of the Tory Party was stripped of the whip last month - after refusing to apologise for remarks about the London Mayor.
He had told GB News Mr Khan had “given our capital away” to Islamists, whom he referred to as "his mates".
The comments prompted widespread condemnation from across the political divide including from several senior Tories.
Ministers left the door open to Mr Anderson re-joining the party, provided he issued an apology.
But the Ashfield MP refused to do so and instead doubled down on his remarks, insisting saying sorry when right would be a "sign of weakness".
In today's press conference, Mr Anderson also said he could not be a member of a party that “stifles free speech,” saying it was “unpalatable” and a “shocker” that he was disciplined for “speaking my mind.”
He also pointed to “several tipping points” in his relationship with the Tories over the last few months, saying: “I cannot be a part of an organisation which stifles free speech, and many of my colleagues in that place, in the Conservative Party, do back back me on this privately.
“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."
Mr Anderson was deputy chairman until he quit in January to rebel against Mr Sunak’s legislation to revive his stalled plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Miriam Cates and Danny Kruger, co-chairs of the New Conservatives group which was created to champion Red Wall voters, said they "regret" Mr Anderson's decision.
But they stressed he responsibility for his defection "sits with the Conservative Party", adding: "We have failed to hold together the coalition of voters who gave us an 80 seat majority in 2019."
A Tory Party spokesman said: “Lee himself said he fully accepted that the Chief Whip had no option but to suspend the whip in these circumstances.
"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.”
The defection by Mr Anderson, which comes after weeks of speculation, gives Reform UK its first MP.
The rebranded Brexit Party is seen by as a potential challenger at the general election expected this year, with signs of growing support for the party.
It secured its best by-election results yet in Wellingborough and Kingswood last month, scoring double-digit shares of the vote in both constituencies.
Lee Anderson's "political journey"
By Jack Elsom, Chief Political Correspondent
IN his own words, Lee Anderson has been on a “political journey”. First a Labour councillor, then a Tory MP, and now the latest recruit for the right-wing Reform Party.
Seen as the embodiment of the Red Wall, the former coal miner claims to speak for ordinary voters fed up with the direction of Britain.
He has railed against mass immigration, political correctness, and woke ideology since being elected for Ashfield in 2019.
It was this no-nonsense candour that led Rishi Sunak to appoint him deputy chairman of the party: the logic being he could speak to parts of the country the polished PM could not.
And sure enough, Anderson was deployed to tear chunks out of Labour and rally working-class voters in language they respected.
No10 even tolerated some of his more strident interventions, such as notoriously calling for the return of the death penalty.
But, as one Tory MP quipped: “If you appoint an attack dog, don’t be surprised if it bites you on the hand.”
The accusation that Sadiq Khan was being controlled by Islamists was a step too far and Mr Sunak saw fit to withdraw the Tory whip.
Yet even as late as last week senior party sources hoped to welcome him back into the Conservative fold before the election.
Anderson himself now faces charges of political opportunism. He claims to have been weighing up defection for a while. But would he have jumped ship if he had not been booted out?
His previous remarks suggest not, only recently describing Reform’s leader Richard Tice as a “poundshop Nigel Farage” and saying the party would only help hand Labour victory.
The question that will now be troubling Tory bosses is whether more MPs are prepared to follow Anderson into Reform.
And whether Mr Sunak can convince them - and wavering voters - to stick with him.