Anderson Defects to Right-Wing Reform UK Party

Sudan Events – Agencies 

A prominent former deputy chairman of Britain’s governing Conservatives, who was suspended from the party over accusations of Islamophobia, on Monday defected to the small right-wing Reform UK party in a setback for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

The move by Lee Anderson, a former miner who has courted controversy with his outspoken views, comes months before a national election in which Reform is expected to draw votes away from the Conservatives and in doing so threaten Sunak’s re-election bid.
Anderson’s defection to Reform, which has Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage as its honorary president and backs populist causes such as tougher immigration laws, gives the party its first member of parliament.

It also represents a blow to Sunak, given Anderson was appointed as the Conservatives’ deputy chairman last year to appeal to voters in former Labour Party-voting heartlands known as the “Red Wall” that backed the Conservatives at the last election.

“I want my country back … We are allowing people into our country that will never integrate and adopt our British values,” Anderson said at a press conference alongside Reform leader Richard Tice, who predicted more lawmakers would join Reform.

“Reform UK has offered me the chance to speak out in parliament on behalf of millions of people up and down the country, who feel that they’re not being listened to.”