Lee Anderson is back in the spotlight. The former Tory MP today jumped ship to Richard Tice’s Reform UK party, following weeks of speculation after he was suspended from the Conservatives. Telling reporters this morning that he had deliberately thrown them ‘off the scent’ when he formally denied he would defect to Reform, Anderson’s remarks suggested his mind had been made up for a while. But it appears this was not a decision the ex-Tory had ever thought he would make when he first became an MP. In fact, the Ashfield rep voted in favour of a bill that would have made defecting considerably trickier…
In 2020, Anderson voted for Anthony Mangnall’s Recall of MPs (Change of Party Affiliation) Bill, which stated it was ‘clearly a breach of the spirit of the contract between ourselves and our constituents’ to change political party. The legislation would have meant that any defecting MP would become subject to a recall petition. If it was successful, with at least 10 per cent of eligible voters having signed it, this would trigger a by-election.
But Anderson has since had a change of heart. Today, Reform’s first MP shut down the prospect of a by-election in his Ashfield constituency, telling journalists that ‘it would be pretty reckless of me to suggest a by-election when there’s an election in May’. It’s out of keeping with the actions of other defectors, like the two ex-Tories Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless (by name and, according to Anderson’s logic, by nature) who stood in by-elections when they decided to join Ukip in 2014.
Reform UK has seen a surge in the polls lately, with some modelling suggesting Richard Tice’s party could even outperform the Lib Dems. Anderson, however, doesn’t seem all that keen to subject it to an electoral test just yet…
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