A former Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party, who was suspended from the party for making comments about Islamism, has defected to the Nigel Farage-founded Reform UK Party.
Lee Anderson MP is the first Member of Parliament for Reform UK, having announced his move to the party at a Westminster press conference on Monday morning. Anderson said he is proud of his country’s achievements and said run-of-the-mill opinions held by millions of Britons — such as concerns about mass migration and crime — are not controversial as the media and Westminster political class claim they are.
The blue-collar former Tory, who had been a deputy party chairman and who is known for his blunt, no-nonsense attitude and use of vernacular English not otherwise often heard in the bars and lobbies of Westminster said he would focus now on winning his seat again in this year’s forthcoming general election. He also said he wanted to win other similar seats, saying they had been “let down” by the Conservatives, to whom their voters went in large numbers at the last UK general election during the Boris Johnson era.
Characterised as ‘Red Wall’ seats, these areas that once had a strong industrial base, since destroyed by the flight of manufacturing abroad. While traditionally left-wing ‘red’ voting, these regions can be very socially conservative and turned to the Conservative Party in 2019 to deliver Brexit.
Richard Tice, leader of Reform UK, left, and Lee Anderson, former Conservative member of parliament, during a news conference, announcing Anderson’s defection to Reform UK, in London, UK, on Monday, March 11, 2024. Anderson’s defection would be a latest boost for Reform, which has been climbing in the national polls and which threatens to draw right-wing voters away from Prime Minister Rihsi Sunak’s Conservatives at the next general election. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The Conservative Party has since gotten rid of Boris Johnson and through a painful series of challenges finally settled on the ultra-wealthy Rishi Sunak as leader and Prime Minister, who despite his clean and uncontroversial leadership style has seen public support fall to historic lows.
Speaking at the Lee Anderson defection press conference this morning, Reform UK party leader Richard Tice said: “we have to shape and influence, and change the direction of this country of ours, because at the moment it is broken and people are getting poorer. And where does this start… the Red Wall. Millions and millions of people as they hear of us, say ‘thank goodness for Reform’.”
Tice said Anderson would be a “champion” for the Red Wall and be “someone who completely understands it, who is trusted by voters to say it as it is, no-nonsense, no waffle, clear, basic, commonsense”.
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