Lee Anderson, the former Conservative Party deputy chairman who played a vital role in PM Rishi Sunak’s plan to win over socially conservative “Red Wall” voters, has joined Reform UK, saying “I want my country back.”
Sceptics claim that Conservative HQ only kept Anderson on board as a token gesture to its anti-mass immigration, anti-‘woke’ supporters. His more traditionalist views on migration and the death penalty may have convinced genuinely conservative voters that the Tories were on their side, but were always rejected by Sunak’s leadership. Anderson’s approach is far more likely to be championed by Reform, which says its mission is to “save Britain.”
The Ashfield MP told a press conference on Monday that he defected after a year of “soul searching,” having come to realise that Parliament—which has a Conservative Party majority, opposed by like-minded Labour MPs—“doesn’t seem to understand what British people want.”
Pointing to his opposition to mass legal migration, pro-Palestine “hate marches” and the culture war which is “sweeping across our nation,” Anderson said:
My opinions are not controversial. They are opinions which are shared by millions of people up and down the country.
Anderson was last month suspended from the Conservative Party after claiming that “Islamists” had “got control” of London Mayor Sadiq Khan amid recurring pro-Palestine protests on the streets of the capital. But Ben Harris-Quinney, chairman of the socially conservative Bow Group think tank, told The European Conservative that Anderson’s defection “may have come regardless,” given that “left, right and centre now all see the Conservative Party as a defunct political actor.”
He agreed that “whilst the failing establishment has dismissed him as an extremist,” Anderson’s views “are mild compared to a majority in Britain that see their country slipping away ever more quickly.”
Reform, formerly the Brexit Party, of course celebrated having its first member in Parliament, and will be grateful for the press this brings it.
But as significant as the move may be, Harris-Quinney argued that “the much bigger question” is “whether [Reform] can re-activate their biggest asset in [former UKIP leader Nigel] Farage.” At present Farage is merely Reform’s honorary president, meaning he doesn’t play much of a role in its day-to-day operations. Speculation has been rife for months over his possible return to the political front line, where both his allies and his enemies recognise he holds a special appeal.
Harris-Quinney told The European Conservative:
I would strongly encourage Nigel to return to politics for the next election, and give voice to the ever growing movement that rejects tired Westminster politics destroying our country.
The Conservatives, on the other hand, described Anderson’s defection as a “mistake” and echoed his comments from January; that a “vote for Reform will only let the Labour party in.”
