Lee Anderson's worst moments as Nigel Farage tries to woo him amid racism storm
Lee Anderson is politically homeless after having the Tory whip withdrawn when he was accused of racism.
The former deputy chairman was suspended after he refused to apologise for suggesting London Mayor Sadiq Khan is controlled by “Islamists”. Mr Anderson, who became MP for Ashfield in 2019, has a long string of controversies to his name - including repeated attacks on those who run food banks, a foul-mouthed tirade against asylum seekers and boycotting England matches after players took the knee.
Despite the current Islamophobia storm Nigel Farage hasn't been put off, suggesting he could be a good fit for Reform UK. Mr Farage, who is Honorary President of the party, said on Saturday: "Lee Anderson should join Reform UK."
Here we look at what the party would be getting if he does join.
Lee Anderson stepped down as Conservative Party Deputy Chairman in January (PA)Dubbed '30p Lee' over foodbank rant
The loudmouth MP earned the nickname "30p Lee" after his shocking rant on foodbanks in the Commons back in 2022. He left MPs stunned as he claimed "there is not this massive use for foodbanks in this country" - despite organisations reporting rocketing figures. He then went on to claim people could "cook meals from scratch" for "30p a day".
'UK's most neglected street with post-apocalyptic scenes like The Last of Us'
At the time the writer and food campaigner Jack Monroe tweeted: "You can’t cook meals from scratch with nothing. You can’t buy cheap food with nothing. The issue is not ‘skills’, it’s 12 years of Conservative cuts to social support.The square root of f*** all is always going to be f*** all, no matter how creatively you’re told to dice it.
England team boycott over taking the knee
The then-Tory MP launched a bizarre boycott of the England team in the run up to Euro 2020 after the players decided to take the knee as an anti-racism protest. Mr Anderson said: "For the first time in my life I will not be watching my beloved England team whilst they are supporting a political movement whose core principles aim to undermine our very way of life."
He was mercilessly mocked for his stubborn vow as the nation united behind Gareth Southgate's team in their triumphant run to the final. Mr Anderson eventually wavered and said he'd be checking the score on the phone.
Criticised for 'fake door knock'
Mr Anderson was caught out by veteran journalist Michael Crick trying to get one of his friends to pose as a constituent. In the run up to the 2019 election, the pair were out canvassing in Nottinghamshire when Mr Anderson was caught on a microphone calling a constituent ahead of the visit.
Mr Anderson was heard saying, "Make out you know who I am, that you know I'm the candidate but not that you are a friend". He had told the camera crew that "some leaflets have just come for me" as he went to arrange the call.
As a Tory candidate, Lee Anderson was caught getting a friend to pose as anti-Labour swing voter (Mail Plus)Playing down cost of living crisis as people were still going to pubs
Mr Anderson told the Tory Party conference in 2022 that the cost of living crisis wasn't as bad as it was made out to be - because there were still people in pubs.
Addressing an audience in Birmingham he said: "Go in any Wetherspoons, that's the barometer of how this country is doing, when Wetherspoons is empty we've got a big problem."
He then accused the media of fearmongering, telling the audience: "Whenever we put the TV on people are telling us how poor we are." He made the remarks during Liz Truss's disastrous time in No10, when the Tory PM tanked the economy and sent interest rates soaring.
Forced to apologise to junior doctor over Twitter meltdown
Mr Anderson donated hundreds of pounds to the doctors’ strike fund and apologised to a medic over a post on Twitter. The Tory MP, who says he is against medics walking out as part of industrial action over pay, handed the British Medical Association £1,870 to “compensate the upset I may have caused” with a tweet he sent last Autumn.
He also issued a grovelling apology to Dr Tom Dolphin, who welcomed Mr Anderson’s donation. Mr Anderson, who is paid £100,000 a year for hosting a GB News show, said on social media: “On October 6 2023 I shared a link on X to a MailOnline article entitled ‘Militant union leader at the heart of doctors strikes is a Labour activist who boasted of charging the NHS for a strike cover shift’.
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"I accept that my words were misleading as the subject in question, Dr Tom Dolphin, was not on strike on the date of the shift in question but was simply covering a shift as a consultant for junior doctors who were on strike on August 11, 2023."
Hitting out at 'do gooders' who run food banks
Back to his 2022 Tory conference event, Mr Anderson had plenty to say about food banks. He said: "I've got a big bee in my bonnet about food poverty. I'm a big believer that we do need food banks, but not to the degree we've got them.
"Every do gooder is starting these little projects to make themselves feel good." He claimed that children go hungry due to the failings of their parents, telling young Conservatives: "I'll take no lectures from the left. How can we have food poverty when we've got an obesity crisis?"
Criticising MPs with second jobs, then getting second job
Back in 2021, Mr Anderson had strong views on MPs with second jobs. He wrote on Facebook: “We are paid handsomely for the job we do and if you need extra then you should really be looking for another job.”
But fast forward to June 2023 and his views seem to have changed. He was confirmed as a new host of GB News, where he earns £100,000 a year hosting his own show.
He joined Tory MPs Jacob Rees-Mogg, Esther McVey - who has since left - Philip Davies. At the time he said: “GB News is the true voice of the Great British silent majority. I’m joining the people’s channel to ensure their voice is heard.”
Deciding not to vote as other MPs laughed at him
In January Mr Anderson dramatically quit as Tory deputy chair as he wasn't a fan of Rishi Sunak's latest Rwanda Bill. He felt it didn't go far enough, but puzzlingly then failed to vote against it.
Explaining why he hadn't, he said he'd gone into the voting booth, but Labour MPs had laughed at him, so he walked out. He told GB News: "I was going to vote no. I went into the no lobby to vote no, because I couldn't see how could support the bill after backing all the amendments.
"I got into the no lobby I spent about two or three minutes with a colleague in there. The Labour lot were giggling and laughing and taking the mick and I couldn't do it. In my heart of hearts I could not vote no.
"So I walked out, and I had come out, so I've abstained. I wanted to vote no, but when I saw that lot in there laughing, there's no way I could support them above the party that's given me a political home."
Lee Anderson hosts a show on GB NewsBroke Commons rules with roof broadcast
Mr Anderson got into hot water after the Mirror revealed he had used the roof of his taxpayer-funded Commons office to film a promo for his GB News programme.
The top Tory was forced to apologise and pay up after being rapped by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards for recording a plug for his £100,000-a-year TV show on the parliamentary estate. Mr Anderson was also found to have broken the rules by using his parliamentary email address for a message to constituents about the show.
The MPs Code of Conduct states: “Excepting modest and reasonable personal use, Members must ensure that the use of facilities and services provided to them by Parliament, including an office, is in support of their parliamentary activities." Mr Anderson, who once ranted about MPs having second jobs, took the presenting role on GB News on top of his £86,584 Commons salary.
Lee Anderson was forced to apologise for recording a TV promo from the roof of his Commons office (@GBNews/Twitter)Tells asylum seekers to 'f*** off to France'
Mr Anderson issued a foul-mouthed message to migrants as the Government’s plan to accommodate migrants on a barge ran into difficulty last summer. The Tory MP hit out after just 15 people initially moved onto the Bibby Stockholm, which is moored at Portland in Dorset, after other raised complaints. He said: "If they don't like barges then they should f*** off back to France."
Campaigners reacted angrily, with Natasha Tsangarides of Freedom from Torture at the time saying: “Time and time again, we’re seeing Government ministers amping up the cruelty of their anti-refugee rhetoric to distract from their own catastrophic mismanagement of both the asylum system and of this country. The dehumanising and inflammatory language used by certain politicians is putting people seeking sanctuary in this country at real risk.”
'Cheap shot' joke that people don't want to go to Bradford amid HS2 row
In September last year Mr Anderson joked that people don’t want to get to Bradford any faster amid rumours northern HS2 links could be scrapped.
He made the comment during a heated fringe event at the Tory conference, where he also joked that dictators were a "good idea" and ranted about "this poverty nonsense". The Ashfield MP was asked about the impact that cancelling the high-speed rail line could have on local services, including better connections between Bradford and Leeds. He shot back: "Anyone here from Bradford? Would you want to get there quicker?”
The room of Tory members and activists erupted into laughter and applause. But one man, who said he was from Sheffield, shouted back: “Cheap shot.” Mr Anderson added that HS2 was a “gamble” and “a bad gambler will always be throwing money at something”.
Claims nurses using foodbanks 'got something wrong with their finances'
As nurses were striking for better pay last year Mr Anderson took to the airwaves and suggested those who use foodbanks have got "something wrong" with their finances.
Speaking to Times Radio in December 2022, he said: "I heard some nonsense a few weeks back that nurses were actually stealing food from patients' plates. I don't believe it. Anybody earning 30-odd-grand a year, which most nurses are, are using foodbanks then they've got something wrong with their own finances".
At the time, the Royal College of Nursing blasted: "Comments like this show a total disconnect with the reality for the tens of thousands of nurses who have been forced out in the cold onto picket lines fighting for fair pay."
A few months later Mr Anderson was asked on BBC Radio Nottingham in February 2023 whether he believed struggling nurses and firefighters who said they needed to use foodbanks. He replied: "No. I would challenge you right now to find a firefighter or a nurse in Ashfield that's using a foodbank. I’ll give you a year to find one, I dare say you can’t. If you do find one, we can work together with that person and look at why they need to use a food bank”.
Lee Anderson was nicknamed '30p Lee' for his rants about cheap cooking (Tom Maddick SWNS)Nuisance tenants to be forced to live in fields and pick potatoes
Just before his election to Parliament in 2019 the then-Tory candidate for Ashfield said he wanted "nuisance" council tenants to live in a field and pick potatoes at 6am. The bizarre 53-second video clip prompted outrage with the East Midlands Labour group saying the wild idea amounted to "forced labour camps".
Appearing in the Carsic estate in the constituency, he said: "I stood on this spot a few months ago banging on about nuisance tenants throughout this lovely estate and the fact they were making people's live a complete misery."
He went on: "People say to me 'But they've got to live somewhere'. That's right, so my plan would be - and again this is just my own personal opinion - that these people who 'have to have somewhere to live', let's have them in a tent in the middle of a field, six o'clock every morning let's have them up, let's have them in the field picking potatoes or any current seasonal vegetables, back in the tent, cold shower, lights out, six o'clock, same again the next day. That would be my solution."
Admits Rishi Sunak failing to fix immigration
Shortly after resigning, Mr Anderson stuck the boot into the Prime Minister by saying he won't stop the boats. Appearing on GB News, Mr Anderson said: “At the end of the day, small boats are coming, they'll keep coming.
"I want to see a situation where anybody who arrives illegally in this country has no right at all, to claim asylum, no right to claim an appeal, and more importantly, no right to go missing and disappear into the country.” He added: “I don't want to see boats pulling up to Dover every 10 minutes. I want to see them not coming and I want to see a bill that delivers that.”
He also ranted that the Tories were failing on immigration back in August. He told GB News. "I'm not gonna sit here and make excuses to anyone," he said. "This is out of control. We're in power at the moment, I am the Deputy Chair of the Conservative Party. We are in government and we have failed on this, there's no doubt about it. We said we're going to fix it, it is a failure… It makes me sick every time I see a boat come across the Channel. It makes me furious when I see them put in hotels and on barges.”
Heard on tape admitting Rishi Sunak lacks charisma of Boris Johnson
In an embarrassing moment for the Prime Minister, Mr Anderson was heard on tape saying Mr Sunak lacked the charisma of Boris Johnson.
Mr Anderson admitted the party hasn’t given the public a reason to vote for them at the next election. The loudmouth MP told a “Lagers with Lee” event: “Rishi is a details man, he gets the job done. He hasn't got the charisma of Boris, we know that… there's not many people who have.”
Mr Anderson, who was speaking at a gathering at Cambridge Rugby Club on October 13, said the party needed to show voters that had backed them for the first time in 2019 that they deserved to be re-election. “When I'm knocking on doors, speaking to people going round the country, they want to vote for us again. Sadly we've not really given a reason to vote for us again,” he said.
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