‘I want my country back’
Anderson’s jibe at Rishi as he defects to Reform UK
RISHI Sunak was last night urged to ‘wake up’ to the threat posed by the Reform Party after Lee Anderson defected to ‘get my country back’.
Tory MPs on the Right of the party urged the Prime Minister to ‘change course urgently’ after the man he appointed as Conservative deputy chairman signed up with the Eurosceptic party that is scooping up disaffected supporters.
Mr Anderson was suspended by the Conservatives last month after he refused to apologise for suggesting that Islamists had ‘got control’ of London’s Labour mayor, Sadiq Khan.
The following day, he was spotted holding talks with Reform UK leader Richard Tice at a motorway service station on the M1 and yesterday Mr Tice revealed him as his party’s newest recruit – and first MP.
Tory whips were on alert for further defections last night after Reform sources claimed the party was in discussion with as many as nine other Conservative MPs.
The New Conservatives group said Mr Anderson’s defection should serve as a wake-up call, and urged Mr Sunak to change direction. Leaders Miriam Cates and Danny Kruger said: ‘Responblow sibility for Lee’s defection sits with the Conservative Party.
‘We have failed to hold together the coalition of voters who gave us an 80-seat majority... We cannot pretend any longer that the plan is working. We need to change course urgently.’
The defection of the maverick former coalminer is a personal to Mr Sunak, who had asked Mr Anderson to take the fight to Labour in the Red Wall after becoming PM. Instead, Mr Anderson will campaign for Reform UK at the election, while trying to hold on to his Ashfield seat.
Appearing at a hastily arranged press conference alongside Mr Tice, he said: ‘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.’
Mr Anderson claimed last year he had been offered ‘ a lot of money’ to defect to Reform, but insisted he was not interested in switching sides. In January, he dubbed Mr Tice a ‘pound- shop Nigel Farage’ and said Reform risked handing the next election to Labour. yesterday the former Labour councillor acknowledged he had done ‘a lot of soul-searching on my political journey’.
He insisted losing the Tory whip had not been the reason for his defection, saying: ‘My parents have been saying to me for weeks now, you cannot win, we can’t vote for you being in the Conservative Party. If my parents are saying that, what chance have I got?’
A Conservative Party spokesman said: ‘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.’