Welcome home, Lee... now park your bus elsewhere!
AFTER five days at the centre of Westminster turmoil, former Conservative vice-chairman Lee Anderson returned to his constituency – probably hoping for a warm welcome.
But less than a week after defecting to become a Reform Party MP, Mr Anderson resurfaced to scenes of chaos.
Mr Anderson, who announced his decision to defect on Monday, led an open-top bus tour in his Red Wall Ashfield constituency with party leader Richard Tice.
And the MP was soon embroiled in a heated confrontation with a constituent who told the pair to leave in a furious expletiveladen rant.
His bizarre ‘day of action’ in Nottinghamshire started in a Morrisons’ car park in Kirkby, while staff members at another supermarket in Selston where he stopped, threatened to call the police if his campaign bus was not removed. Mr Anderson was pictured talking to police at the scene.
The Right-winger lost the Tory whip last month after claiming Islamists controlled London mayor Sadiq Khan.
During his first day back in his constituency, he doubled down on calls for Nigel Farage – now honorary president of Reform – to return to frontline politics. ‘You ask anyone in this place, of course they’d like to see Nigel back,’ he said. ‘He speaks for millions of people... It’s good to come back to the real world and talk to real people who mostly are saying “you’ve done the right thing”.
‘We want our country back, people are fed up of Parliament giving our country away.’
Earlier this week, Mr Anderson said the swell in Reform membership – 2,000 members joined in 48 hours after his defection – showed voters would ‘welcome [Mr Farage] with open arms’.
He added: ‘He’s been probably the most influential politician over the past 25 to 30 years.’
Mr Anderson, previously a Labour councillor, has a majority of 5, 18. The former Labour safe seat is expected to flip back to the party at the election.