Anderson meets with Tice amid talk of defection

Calls grow for readmission of MP to Tory party as he claims he should have criticised Khan for more

Lee Anderson, the former Tory deputy chairman, has refused to apologise for comments he made about Sadiq Khan last week

LEE ANDERSON has held private talks with Richard Tice, the leader of Reform UK, amid growing calls for him to be readmitted to the Tory party.

GB News reported that the pair met for in-person talks on Sunday lunchtime at a Holiday Inn hotel, at junction 28 of the M1 in South Normanton, Derbyshire.

It follows speculation that the former vice-chairman of the Conservative Party was considering defecting to the Right-wing party after his whip was suspended at the weekend.

It is understood that Mr Anderson was suspended over the weekend because of his refusal to apologise for his claims last week that Islamists had “got control” of Sadiq Khan and of London.

Mr Anderson, the MP for Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, reiterated that his name would be on the ballot paper whether or not he is welcomed back to the Conservative Party, and again refused to rule out joining the Reform party.

It is understood that No 10 would like Mr Anderson to return, as long as he apologises. The MP has refused to do so, preferring instead to justify the comments.

Yesterday, Mr Anderson said he wished he had criticised Sadiq Khan over his links with Just Stop Oil and Black Lives Matter as well as with Islamists, amid growing pressure on him to apologise.

In an apparent softening of his position, he said that if he could go back, he would change his words “slightly” to include more groups of people.

Mr Khan branded the comments “vile, racist, anti-muslim and Islamophobic” and said they had “poured petrol on the fire of this hatred”.

It comes as more than 15,000 people signed a petition calling on Rishi Sunak to reinstate Mr Anderson immediately, according to a Tory grass-roots publication. The petition, on the Conservative Post website, has been signed by some 15,500 people, around 2,000 of whom said they are current party members. A further 3,400 respondents ticked a box to declare they had previously been a Tory member.

Yesterday, Sir Jacob Rees-mogg, the former business secretary, said he should have the whip reinstated.

“Lee’s comments were infelicitous but he should not have had the party whip withdrawn,” he told GB News. “When Lee made these remarks, these were the words of a man profoundly concerned about the state of extremism in Britain.

“His concerns about Islamism are entirely legitimate and reflect views held across the country,” he said.

GB News said Mr Tice was travelling back that morning from the Reform UK

‘I am sorry for using the word no-go areas because it actually feeds into conspiracy theories’

‘His concerns about Islamism are legitimate and reflect views held across the country’

conference in Doncaster when he agreed to meet with Mr Anderson at the hotel, which is just 10 miles from Mr Anderson’s Ashfield constituency.

The meeting happened 24 hours after Mr Anderson was suspended by the Prime Minister. Neither Reform UK nor Mr Anderson would comment on the reports.

It comes amid another row, after Paul Scully, the Tory MP, yesterday apologised for suggesting there were religious “no-go” areas in parts of Birmingham and London.

The former minister for London sparked a backlash after making the comment during an interview on BBC Radio London.

Yesterday, he said: “I am sorry for using the word ‘no-go’ areas because it was a blunt thing that actually feeds into another set of conspiracy theories… which was absolutely not my intention.”

Meanwhile, Labour’s poll lead over the Tories has shrunk by three points, according to a new Redfield & Wilton Strategies survey.