Lee Anderson, UK lawmaker dropped by Sunak, defects to right-wing party

Anderson was suspended from the Conservative Party over accusations of Islamophobia.

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

The move on Monday 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”, which backed the Conservatives at the last election.

The New Conservatives, a group of MPs on the right of the Tory party who have rebelled against Sunak, said the Conservative Party was responsible for Anderson’s defection.