Rishi Sunak faced warnings today that more Tories are gearing up to switch to Reform UK after Lee Anderson became the insurgents’ first MP.
The PM has been left yet again struggling to quell panic in his ranks after the former Conservative deputy chair was unveiled by jubilant Reform leader Richard Tice at a press conference this morning.
Swiping at his former colleagues, Mr Anderson said he ‘wants our country back’ and had to be able to ‘speak my mind’.
The Ashfield MP said there had been a ‘lot of soul searching in my political journey’ but his parents and his staff had all told him to switch to Reform.
The news immediately fuelled Conservative panic about the threat of an implosion at the election.
The latest Redfield & Wilton Strategies survey, published this afternoon, showed Reform UK at their highest-ever level with the pollster at 14 per cent support.
This put them just 10 percentage points behind the Tories (24 per cent), with Labour holding an 18-point lead over the Conservatives on 42 per cent.
The poll also revealed more than one-in-five voters (21 per cent) who backed the Tories at the 2019 general election would now support Reform UK – a joint-record high.
A bullish Mr Tice this morning said he would be ‘surprised’ if more MPs did not switch to Reform before the election – with claims at least nine are considering their future.
Tories warned that politicians could feel they have nothing to lose with Labour on course for a huge majority.
One Tory former minister told : ‘I think 2019 MPs who believe being red faced and shouty is the way to be a serious politician may follow him.’
Meanwhile, Conservative right-wingers said they could no longer pretend the ‘plan is working’, while there were open calls for the party to take ‘one last chance’ to chance leader before an election wipeout.
The latest Redfield & Wilton Strategies survey, published this afternoon, showed Reform UK at their highest-ever level with the pollster at 14 per cent support
This put Reform UK just 10 percentage points behind the Tories (24 per cent), with Labour holding an 18-point lead over the Conservatives on 42 per cent
The poll also revealed more than one-in-five voters (21 per cent) who backed the Tories at the 2019 general election would now support Reform UK – a joint-record high
Reform UK has its first MP today after Lee Anderson (right) dramatically announced he is joining the Nigel Farage-backed outfit
Leader Richard Tice (left) was jubilant as he unveiled Mr Anderson as the new recruit today
Rishi Sunak visited a mosque in London this morning, but has yet to comment on Mr Anderson’s decision
Mr Anderson had been feted by Mr Sunak for his plain-speaking politics, and regarded as key to efforts to shore up the ‘Red Wall’.
But he was ejected from the Tories last month after refusing to say sorry for claiming ‘Islamists’ had ‘got control’ of London mayor Sadiq Khan.
Mr Anderson reiterated today: ‘I will not apologise.’
He said: ‘When I find myself suspended for speaking my mind – and, by the way, speaking up on behalf of millions of people up and down the country who agree with me – that for me is unpalatable. It’s a shocker, if I’m honest.
‘I cannot be a part of an organisation which stifles free speech, and many of my colleagues in that place, in the Conservative Party, do back me on this privately.’
Mr Anderson added: ‘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 said he would not be triggering a by-election – although Conservatives quickly pointed out that he previously signed a motion saying contests should be automatic when MPs switched party.
The MP said he was sad to leave his former colleagues, but predicted that in a year’s time they would be ‘sitting on the same benches as me’.
He accused the Tories of not standing up for ‘free speech’.
Asked for his message to Tory MPs, he said his priorities were ‘country, constituency and then party’.
Mr Anderson said his ‘conscience is clear’ when asked whether his defection to Reform UK would help Labour at the general election.
‘Somebody has to make a stand,’ he told a press conference.
‘I have to live with my conscience. My conscience is clear.’
He said: ‘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?’
Pressed on Reform UK deputy leader Ben Habib’s desire to ‘obliterate’ the Conservatives, Mr Anderson said: ‘It’s not an objective which is at the top of my agenda.
‘My vision for this party is to win seats like Ashfield… places that I think have been let down by my old party.’
He added: ‘I have to be with a party that puts this country first, rather than their mates at the tea parties and clinking their champagne glasses.’
Mr Anderson insisted ‘no money has been offered at all’ to entice him to join Reform.
He also said: ‘It’s a sad day that I’m leaving my colleagues. But if I’m honest, this time next year they’ll be sat on the same benches as me.’
Mr Tice told the press conference in central London that ‘Britain is broken and we all know who broke it’.
Pointing to the Tory and Reform standings in the polls, he added: ‘We’re going up and they are going down.’
‘We need a champion, of course, of the Red Wall, someone who completely understands it, who is trusted by voters to tell it as it is, no nonsense, no waffle, clear, basic, common sense,’ Mr Tice said.
‘And I’m delighted to announce that I have found that champion of the Red Wall for reform UK.
‘He’s also coincidentally going to be Reform UK’s first Member of Parliament’s in the House of Commons.
‘He is of course a person of great integrity, no nonsense, and is the Member of Parliament in the county of Nottinghamshire for Ashfield.’
One Ukip veteran warned of a repeat of the tensions that erupted when Clacton MP Douglas Carswell defected from the Conservatives in 2014.
‘Anderson and Tice will be screaming at each other,’ the insider told .
‘Lee’s staff will suddenly be dealing with the incompetence of Reform’s staff and it will be like Carswell all over again.’
Tory infighting quickly resumed as the news broke. Minister Simon Hoare joined criticism that Mr Anderson was switching parties without triggering a by-election.
However, Danny Kruger and Miriam Cates of the New Conservatives warned it showed Mr Sunak’s ‘plan is not working’.
‘Responsibility 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,’ they said in a statement.
‘We cannot pretend any longer that the plan is working. We need to change course urgently.’
Backbencher Andrea Jenkyns insisted it was the ‘last chance to get a grip of our party and get a new leader’. She said otherwise it was ‘game over and the socialists are in’.
Privately MPs are deeply anxious about the situation. One senior backbencher told they ‘doubted’ there would be defections but ‘suspect a lot will be unhappy’.
Another senior Conservative said there was a risk MPs would jump ship even though it was unlikely to benefit them. ‘If you thought you had already lost and wanted to make a point it’s a different matter,’ they said grimly.
A Tory spokesman said: ‘Lee himself said he fully accepted that the Chief Whip had no option but to suspend the whip in these circumstances. 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 – which means higher taxes, higher energy costs, no action on channel crossings, and uncontrolled immigration.’
Mr Tice did not rule out opening the door to Mr Anderson after his suspension, and the pair were said to have held several meetings.
But Mr Anderson has previously been less than complimentary about his possible new leader, branding him a ‘pound shop Farage’ and ‘Reform’s answer to Nigel Farage’.
He has derided Reform as ‘not a proper political party’, saying it is a ‘company’.
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.
Tory backbencher Andrea Jenkyns insisted it was the ‘last chance to get a grip of our party and get a new leader’
Danny Kruger and Miriam Cates of the New Conservatives warned it showed Mr Sunak’s ‘plan is not working’
Mr Anderson issued a statement on social media after his press conference today
Mr Anderson and Rishi Sunak in January, before the row over his jibes at Sadiq Khan erupted
Some Tories see Reform UK as a challenger at the general election expected this year, with signs of growing support for the party.
Reform UK finished in third place in two recent by-elections, although its candidate in the Rochdale contest – former Labour MP Simon Danczuk – had a poor showing.
Mr Tice has played up the danger posed to the ruling party by Reform UK candidates and has ruled out entering any electoral pact with the Conservatives.
He has insisted he would stand candidates in every constituency, unlike in 2019 when his party – then the Brexit Party – stood down candidates to help Mr Johnson.
Arch Brexiteer Mr Farage is the honorary president of Reform UK, which is seeking to attract disillusioned 2019 Conservative voters over the issue of immigration.
Mr Farage, who founded the Brexit Party – later renamed Reform UK – in 2018, has downplayed rumours of a possible switch to the Tories.
Mr Anderson is a former coal miner, ex-Labour councillor and a committed Brexiteer.
The 55-year-old describes himself as ‘born and bred’ in Ashfield, the Nottinghamshire constituency he now represents in the House of Commons.
After leaving school, he followed his coalmining father into the pits, where he worked for 10 years.
According to a biography on his website, Mr Anderson then volunteered at a local Citizens Advice bureau, worked in hostels for homeless care leavers, and took a job in a local MP’s office.
He also became a local Labour councillor after being a lifetime party member.
A 2018 local newspaper report detailed how Mr Anderson was subject to an investigation by his fellow Labour councillors.
It came after he was issued with a community protection warning after placing boulders to deter travellers from setting up camp at a local site.
Mr Anderson soon defected to the Tories and was later elected a Conservative councillor.
Not long after, he was elected to Parliament as MP for Ashfield in 2019 as part of Boris Johnson’s 80-seat Tory majority.
Reform UK has been creeping up in the polls as the Tories flag, despite repeated attempts by Rishi Sunak to relaunch
Richard Tice has promised developments amid frenzied speculation that the Lee Anderson could join – becoming its first MP