The former deputy chair of the Conservative party, Lee Anderson, has defected to Reform UK, said the party’s leader, Richard Tice.
Anderson’s defection to the rightwing populist party was announced by Tice at a central London press conference on Monday.
Anderson lost the Tory whip after claiming Islamists had “got control” of Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, and that he had “given our capital city away to his mates”.
Anderson, whose constituency is Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, becomes the only MP to sit for Reform, which grew out of the Brexit party after the 2016 referendum and has links to Nigel Farage.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Anderson’s defection to the rightwing populist party was announced by Tice at a central London press conference on Monday.
Anderson lost the Tory whip after claiming Islamists had “got control” of Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, and that he had “given our capital city away to his mates”.
Anderson, whose constituency is Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, becomes the only MP to sit for Reform, which grew out of the Brexit party after the 2016 referendum and has links to Nigel Farage.
The move is not without risk for Reform and Tice, given Anderson’s history of controversial statements – including about his new leader.
Introduced by Tice, Anderson gave a brief speech in which he said, several times, “I want my country back”, citing immigration and recent pro-Palestine marches.
In a sometimes bad-tempered question and answer session, Anderson said he would not resign and call a byelection, saying this would be wrong too close to an election.
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