The former deputy chair of the Conservative party, Lee Anderson, has defected to Reform UK, said the party’s leader, Richard Tice.
Anderson’s defection to the rightwing populist party was announced by Tice at a central London press conference on Monday.
Anderson lost the Tory whip after claiming Islamists had “got control” of Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, and that he had “given our capital city away to his mates”.
Anderson, whose constituency is Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, becomes the only MP to sit for Reform, which grew out of the Brexit party after the 2016 referendum and has links to Nigel Farage.
- Be racist
- Join torys, obviously
- Get kicked out for saying the quiet part out loud
- Join an even more racist party
You can’t expect 30p Lee to stay with a party for a full government term, surely?
On the one hand, I do actually like that he puts personal values and policies over party loyalty; I wish we would see more politicians be willing to cross the aisle if their party shifts away from their own values. I’m not a fan of the party system in general. On the other hand, I despise his values and policies - and those of the Tory and Reform parties - and I hope he fades into irrelevance.
This is definitely a blow to Rishi Sunak. A little over a year ago he personally selected 30p Lee as vice-chairman of the Tory party and now he’s defected. That’s a huge political embarrassment - and Rishi was already looking weak.
Man goes through political parties like I go through cheap pairs of socks.
Racist joins racist party. Only question is why he was not only tolerated but actively encouraged by the Conservatives for so long when we all knew what he was.
Because a certain proportion of the public (of all publics everywhere) like the narrative that immigrants are to blame for …whatever really
Time for brexit 2 to win them back in
Yes, Brexit 1 was just politically leaving Europe, Brexit 2 is actually moving the whole country to the middle of the atlantic.
it’s wild how i saw someone post about how lee anderson has been in the tories, labour, and reform without having to moderate or change his position… which says a lot about the three parties.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Anderson’s defection to the rightwing populist party was announced by Tice at a central London press conference on Monday.
Anderson lost the Tory whip after claiming Islamists had “got control” of Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, and that he had “given our capital city away to his mates”.
Anderson, whose constituency is Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, becomes the only MP to sit for Reform, which grew out of the Brexit party after the 2016 referendum and has links to Nigel Farage.
The move is not without risk for Reform and Tice, given Anderson’s history of controversial statements – including about his new leader.
Introduced by Tice, Anderson gave a brief speech in which he said, several times, “I want my country back”, citing immigration and recent pro-Palestine marches.
In a sometimes bad-tempered question and answer session, Anderson said he would not resign and call a byelection, saying this would be wrong too close to an election.
The original article contains 295 words, the summary contains 155 words. Saved 47%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
