Tory Party chairman suggests they would take Anderson back
‘NOTHING’S OFF THE TABLE’ HE SAYS, DURING VISIT TO NOTTS
THE Conservative Party’s chairman says “nothing is off the table” when asked if they would welcome Lee Anderson back nearly a month after suspending him.
The Ashfield MP initially continued as an independent before announcing on Monday that he had joined Richard Tice’s Reform UK party.
On the same day that Mr Anderson toured Ashfield on an open-top bus (see opposite) the Conservative Party chairman had been speaking to local members at the Il Rosso restaurant in Mansfield.
Speaking after about whether the Conservative Party had now lost Ashfield, Richard Holden said: “I think we’ve more than a fighting chance in Ashfield. Lee won back in 2019 but you know, I think candidates like to think it’s all about them.
“We all know actually it’s about something bigger than that, which is about ideas, about the local party here on the ground.
“A seat like Ashfield, which is already a three-way marginal, probably will become a four way marginal now that a vote for anybody apart from the Conservative candidate is most likely to return a Labour MP after the next election.
“Lee’s made very clear himself on previous occasions that a vote for Reform will only help Labour at a national level and that is also true at a local level as well.”
Responding to the idea that his defection to Reform would end up with Labour winning Ashfield, Lee Anderson said: “A vote for Reform is a vote for Reform - it’s as simple as that.”
Pressed on whether the loss of Lee Anderson would make it harder for the Conservatives to retain Ashfield, Mr Holden said: “I’m not saying it’s an ideal situation. I wish that Lee hadn’t done what he’s done.
“I wish he’d felt able to apologise and clarify his previous comments.
“I thought he added to that broad diverse church that we are in the Conservative Party and I’ve always been happy to allow him to speak his mind. I think there’s a difference, though, in this instance, where he just said something which was factually untrue.
“All Lee Anderson, if he wants to come back to the Conservative Party, needs to do is make it clear that what he said was clumsy and wrong on the specific issue around the Mayor of London and whether he’s controlled by Islamists.
“If he apologises for that, then nothing is off the table.
“I don’t understand why he’s got so hung up on this thing.”
Mr Holden was also visiting Nottinghamshire as part of preparations for the upcoming East Midlands Mayor election, where Ben Bradley is standing for the Conservatives.
Mr Holden said: “What I really hope is that Lee now swings behind Ben Bradley, the man who helped really get him into politics in the first place.
“I hope, at least on a personal level, that Lee repays that loyalty to Ben that Ben has shown to him over so many years.”
When asked who he was backing in the East Midlands Mayor election, which also features a Reform candidate who says he would immediately abolish the position, Mr Anderson said: “I’m concentrating on my Ashfield seat and the parliamentary seats in the Red Wall.”
Mr Holden said the priority of local Conservative members for now was the mayoral election but that after that, the national party would “move at speed” to help them pick a new candidate in Ashfield.
Asked whether the Conservatives would be able to find someone with the local connections of Lee Anderson, Mr Holden added: “I’m sure that whoever our candidate is will have a real connection with local people in Ashfield and will be spending their time on campaigning for local people in Ashfield as well.”