LONDON (Reuters) – 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 populist Reform UK party in a setback for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
The move by Lee Anderson, a former miner who has courted controversy with trenchant 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.
The loss of Anderson to a rival party is a blow to Sunak, given he was appointed as 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.
Last month the Conservatives suspended Anderson after he refused to apologise for saying London’s first Muslim mayor was under the control of Islamists and he had given the British capital “away to his mates”.
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.
Anderson quit his post as one of Conservative Party’s deputy chairmen in January to vote for amendments to toughen up immigration legislation that would revive the government’s plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.
The 57-year-old supports the return of capital punishment, wants asylum seekers to be immediately returned to their countries of origin, and earned the nickname “30p Lee” after claiming that decent meals could be made for that amount.
The row over Anderson’s comments about London’s mayor comes at a sensitive time in British politics as the Israel-Hamas war exacerbates tensions in Jewish and Muslim communities that have spilled into parliament.
Politicians are taking steps to protect themselves, such as wearing stab vests in meetings or building safe rooms, because they fear for their safety.
Sunak has called on all sides to “take the heat” out of the issue but Anderson refused to apologise saying he had “not made one single racist comment,” and that the opposition was “quick to use the race card for political advantage”.
(Reporting by Sarah Young and Muvija M; Editing by Andrew MacAskill and William James)
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