Former Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson has defected to Reform UK, it was announced by the party’s leader Richard Tice today.
The Ashfield MP was kicked out of the Conservative Party last month in an Islamophobia row.
He has now joined the Nigel Farage-linked right-wing populist party, Tice announced at a press conference in London at 10.30am on Monday.
Mr Anderson was stripped of the Tory whip after refusing to apologise for claiming that “Islamists” had “got control” of London mayor Sadiq Khan.
The switch to Reform UK, which comes after weeks of speculation about a possible defection by Mr Anderson, gives the party its first MP.
Mr Anderson was deputy chairman of the Tory party until he resigned in January to rebel against Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s legislation to revive his stalled plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.
The now-independent MP has since 2019 represented Ashfield, one of the previously Labour seats in the so-called red wall where voters switched to the Tories after Brexit to give Boris Johnson his landslide victory.
Some Tories see Reform UK as a challenger at the general election expected this year, with signs of growing support for the party.
Arch Brexiteer Mr Farage is the honorary president of Reform UK, which is seeking to attract disillusioned Conservative voters mainly over the issue of immigration.
Responding to reports that Mr Anderson will defect to Reform, Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: “Rishi Sunak’s authority lies in tatters after the man he personally appointed to be deputy chairman of the Conservatives has defected to another party.
“This is a Prime Minister that cannot govern his own party, let alone the country.
“Even now, Sunak is too weak to rule out Nigel Farage joining the Conservative Party. It just shows that there is now hardly a cigarette paper between the Conservative Party and Reform.”
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