Lee Anderson expected to defect from Tories to Reform UK

Former Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson is understood to be defecting to Reform UK, in a blow to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

The Ashfield MP was kicked out of the Conservative Party last month in an Islamophobia row.

He is set to join the Nigel Farage-linked right-wing populist party.

Party leader Richard Tice is expected to announce the move 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, would give the party its first MP.

Mr Anderson has previously criticised Reform UK and described its leader Mr Tice as a “pound shop Nigel Farage”.

Speaking earlier this year to GB News, which pays him a £100,000 salary, on top of his £86,584 MP pay, to present a show on its network, Mr Anderson said: “This is not a proper political party, by the way, this is a company…

“I think he’s a pound shop Nigel Farage and every time he opens his mouth recently on whichever media platform, he is coming across as Reform’s answer to Diane Abbott.

“He’s just saying ridiculous things.”

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.

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 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.”