Is Lee Anderson about to join Reform UK? Until yesterday I never thought he would. But the Independent MP for Ashfield’s interview with Patrick Christys and me on GB News last night changed all that.
It was nothing less than a challenge to Tory leader Rishi Sunak. Anderson was effectively telling the PM that he should restore the Tory whip to him, or he will cross the floor and join Reform UK.
Just look at what he said when I asked if he will join Reform after Sunak cut him loose over his claims that Islamists have now "got control" of Sadiq Khan.
"I won't give a running commentary. I have been on a political journey and it's been an incredible journey," the former Labour councillor said, reflecting on the fact that he only voted Tory for the first time in 2019 when he became a MP.
Is Lee Anderson about to join Reform UK?
PA
He added: “I'm making no comment on my future. I shall be sat in the chamber this afternoon on the Conservative benches. There's no votes today, but there'll be votes tomorrow and I'll be voting with the Government."
When I asked him if he would stand as a Conservative candidate at the next general election he replied: “That's not up to me, that's out of my hands at the moment, but I will be standing at the next election."
Anderson is clearly hurting, and thinks that the Tory party should have stood by him. “I think the party could have given me a little bit more backing, if I'm honest," he said.
Anderson is getting support, from the Tory grassroots (a petition has garnered support from 10,000 activists demanding his reinstatement) and other Conservative MPs elected in 2019 who clearly think he has been hard done by and admire Anderson for standing firm.
In his GB News interview, Anderson himself seemed to detect double standards, pointing out that David Cameron (as Prime Minister) and Zac Goldsmith (as former Tory mayoral candidate) made similar claims about Khan in 2016 and were not disciplined.
"They went to different schools, and probably from a different background, more privileged than myself," he said. "I'm in a lot more hot water for what I said than what my colleagues were several years ago. I don't know why."
Meanwhile the Liberal Democrats are piling up pressure on the Government, tabling an early day motion in Parliament calling for Anderson to be censured over his remarks and apologise for them.
All of this after Reform UK leader Richard Tice showered Anderson with praise. "The truth is that Lee speaks for millions of people who are appalled by what is happening to our country," he said.
And suggested the pair should speak. He added: "I do not and will not give a running commentary on any discussions I have with any MPs, but those MPs have my number."
Anderson has been described as “the red wall made flesh” by the BBC in the past, and Sunak will be aware of his symbolic importance to the party in showing that it can hold together the balance of seats in the north and south won by Boris Johnson in 2019.
If Anderson joins Reform UK it will be another hammer blow to Sunak’s efforts to cling to power when the country goes to the polls later this year.