Lee Anderson

Lee Anderson (born 6 January 1967) is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashfield in Nottinghamshire since 2019. Elected as Conservative, he was appointed as a Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party in February 2023, but resigned from the post in January 2024 in order to vote for an amendment to the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill. The parliamentary whip was suspended in February 2024 after Anderson's comments about Sadiq Khan, the London Mayor, leading him to switch his party affiliation to Reform UK the following month. He retained his seat in the July 2024 general election. Prior to his parliamentary career, he was a Labour councillor in Ashfield, but defected to the Conservative Party in 2018. Since 2023, Anderson has hosted a show on GB News and is reportedly being paid £100,000 per annum by the channel.

2019

 * [On nuisance council tenants] People say, "They have 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 live somewhere, 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 other seasonal vegetables, back in the tent, cold shower, lights out, six o’clock, same again the next day. That would be my solution.
 * Comments in a campaign video posted on Facebook cited by Kate Devlin in "Force nuisance council tenants to work the fields, says Tory general election candidate" The Times (19 November 2019)


 * [M]ake out you know who I am, that you know I'm the candidate but not that you are a friend.
 * Phone call picked up by Anderson's microphone ahead of canvassing visit while being followed by reporter Michel Crick (working for the Mail+ website) during the 2019 general election campaign, as cited in "Ashfield candidate faces criticism over 'fake door knock'" BBC News (29 November 2019). Anderson had explained the phone call to the camera crew as "some leaflets have just come for me".


 * All throughout my time in the Labour Party, every meeting I went to, I always had my rant [...] They always used to say: "Why don’t you go and join the Tory party?" This went on for years. And then I did.
 * The Tory party's picked me for a reason: I'm an ex-miner in a mining town [...] I campaigned to Leave. They know my history. It's easier for somebody to vote for me if they see me as one of them. It probably makes it acceptable to vote Tory if it's an ex-pitman – rather than some posh Tory boy.
 * Interviewed during the 2019 general election campaign, as cited in "On the road in Ashfield, the UK’s most gambled-on constituency" New Statesman (10 December 2019)

2021

 * 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.
 * Opposing the English football team's taking the knee gesture in support of the Black Lives Matter protests during Euro 2020 (held in June/July 2021), as cited by Jessica Murray in "Tory MP to boycott England games in row over taking the knee" The Guardian (6 June 2021)


 * I would be in favour of [using] the Falkland Islands. The only way we will put these people off is by giving them the message that if you come here you are going to be sent 8,000 miles away.
 * Explaining he had lobbied an immigration minister on this suggestion, cited in "Tory MPs suggest sending migrants to UK to the Falklands" The Guardian (21 November 2021)

We are paid handsomely for the job we do and if you need an extra £100,000 a year on top then you should really be looking for another job.
 * There should be no place in politics for MPs to make financial gain from private companies in return for lobbying.
 * On the Owen Paterson lobbying controversy (late 2021), as cited in "Lee Anderson: Everything that is good in the world started in Britain" The Telegraph (23 June 2023)

2022
We’ve got generation after generation that cannot cook properly, they can't cook a meal from scratch, they cannot budget, the challenge is there. Come to Ashfield, come to a real food bank that's making a real difference to people’s lives.
 * What we do at the food bank, we show them how to cook cheap and nutritious meals on a budget [...] We can make a meal for about 30 pence a day, and this is cooking from scratch.
 * [Asked by a Labour MP if food banks should be necessary in Britain.] I think you’ll see first-hand that there's not this massive use for food banks in this country.
 * Comments during a debate in the House of Commons, as cited in "People use food banks because they can't budget or cook, claims Tory MP" The Telegraph (11 May 2022)

So there's the real proof, so if people want to come here and have a go and we can teach them then surely they will stand back and say we can cook on a budget and thank you for doing it.
 * [Responding to criticism following his comments about food banks] The last cooking session we did, which we publicised - where we had four MPs here - we made I think 180 meals for fifty quid, which is 30p each.
 * "Food bank row Tory MP Lee Anderson says he has proven he can make meals for 30p" ITV News (13 May 2022)


 * 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.
 * "Tory MP claims UK will only have 'big problem' when Wetherspoons is empty" Walesonline (3 October 2022)


 * We've got the gutter press lurking around every corner trying to cause problems. [...] We had Brexit, we had Boris, we had Jeremy Corbyn, that was three years ago, now it is a different ball game under Theresa May.
 * Comments during the October 2022 Conservative Party annual conference, as cited in "Who is Lee Anderson? The glories and gaffes of the new Conservative Party deputy chairman" Evening Standard (9 February 2023)
 * The British prime minister at the time of these comments was Liz Truss. Theresa May was prime minister between 2016 and 2019.


 * [On the possibility comedian Eddie Izzard, who identifies as transgender, might be elected to parliament.] Is that what's coming to parliament? I think it opens a whole new debate, mate. I’m going to be honest now, controversial as always, if he does get elected and I’m still here, I shouldn't be following him into the toilets.
 * In an interview on TalkTV, cited by Aletha Adu and Aubrey Allegretti in "Tory MP under fire for transphobic comments about Eddie Izzard" The Guardian (26 October 2022)

2023
I used to watch Popeye as a kid. Every time he had his tin of spinach, he got stronger and that's what it is like for me every time I got one of these horrible comments. My haters are my motivators.
 * [On a clash with anti-Brexit protester, Steve Bray.] He had a go at my weight. This is a man who was quite clearly out of condition. I'm trying to do something about it, but here is a challenge [...] He is a nuisance. And I've got a challenge for him: Meet me in the boxing ring. Let's do three rounds. And if I win, he never protests out there again. And if he wins, I'll go and protest with him.
 * This week I’ve been called lard a--- pot belly MP. I've been called a fat b-- all over Twitter. Most of them are hidden profiles, keyboard cowards.
 * On the Telegraph's Choppers podcast, as reproduced in "Lee Anderson challenges Steve Bray to a boxing match" The Telegraph (20 January 2023)


 * [After another Conservative MP predicted losses at the May local elections and the next general election] It's like the band on the Titanic. Playing the same tune and ignoring the obvious.
 * From leaked WhatsApp messages from the Common Sense Group of MPs as cited in "Lee Anderson: Tory MP likens government to Titanic band in heated WhatsApp exchange about small boat crossings" Sky News (29 January 2023)

For some reason, in this place, saying the obvious – they just call it populist. It's our job to represent opinions of people in our country. If people are angry about small boats, then we should be angry.
 * Nobody has ever committed a crime after being executed. You know that, don't you? 100 per cent success rate. [...] Now, I'd be very careful on that one because you’ll get certain groups saying: "You can never prove it." Well, you can prove it if they have videoed it and are on camera – like the Lee Rigby killers. I mean, they should have gone, same week. I don’t want to pay for these people.
 * [Anderson said he was informed on a visit to Calais the migrants there were referring to the UK as El Dorado.] They are seeing a country where the streets are paved with gold – where, once you land, they are not in that manky little f-- scruffy tent [...] They are going to be in a four-star hotel. And they know that Serco is buying up houses everywhere to put them in for the next five years. Why wouldn't you come?
 * [Asked about a resolution] I'd send them straight back the same day. I'd put them on a Royal Navy frigate or whatever and sail it to Calais, have a standoff. And they'd just stop coming.
 * Interview in The Spectator conducted just before Anderson was appointed as Conservative vice-chairman, as cited in "New Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson backs death penalty" The Telegraph (8 February 2023).
 * See Capital punishment in the United Kingdom.

We’re supposed to be talking about my role as a chairman. Listen, listen! We’re supposed to be talking about my role as deputy chairman, not the other stuff. You went off on a tangent … So don’t play it please. If you do, I will never give you anything again.
 * [On being told a 11 minute BBC interview could not be broadcast in full.] I’m asking you now not to play it. I can’t trust you to play the whole lot and be fair to me.
 * "BBC's car-crash interview with Tory deputy chair Lee Anderson IN FULL" The National (9 February 2023)
 * The interview was for BBC Radio Nottingham, pre-recorded on 8 February. The BBC later published the complete interview.


 * Hold on grandad, come outside and we'll sort it out.
 * "Top Tory in 'aggressive' row with expelled MP and Game of Thrones star's dad: 'Outside and we'll sort it out'" The Independent (26 April 2023)
 * Reported comment (6 April 2023) to former Conservative councillor Sebastian Leslie (then aged 69) during an argument at Portcullis House over the party's expulsion of MP Andrew Bridgen (with whom Leslie was dining) for comparing Coronavirus vaccines to the Holocaust. Sebastian Leslie's daughter is Rose Leslie who performed the role of Ygritte in Game of Thrones.


 * 'Not My King?' If you do not wish to live in a country that has a monarchy, the solution is not to turn up with your silly boards. The solution is to emigrate.
 * Tweet (6 May 2023) after protests at the Coronation of Charles III and Camilla cited in "Anti-monarchists should leave UK, says Lee Anderson" The Telegraph (6 May 2023)


 * Look, we are a great country. We are a gift to the world. We are now an independent, trading, sovereign nation, a gift to the world. I keep saying this to anybody that will listen.
 * Look at the things we've done in the past. We've given railways, we've given technology, the Industrial Revolution, arts, culture, Dickens, Shakespeare, sports. Look at, you know, football, tennis, rugby, golf – everything that's good in this world started on this great island of ours.
 * On his GB News programme (23 June 2023), as cited in "Lee Anderson: Everything that is good in the world started in Britain" The Telegraph (23 June 2023)


 * [On Tim Davie, BBC director-general, who has advocated for diversity in recruitment] I wrote to him and pointed out that since the BBC started having director-generals in 1927, they've all been white. I asked, why don't you resign and give the job to a black person? He never responded.
 * [On people in high positions] They've gone woke, haven't they? They're hypocrites. They want things to be done but they want somebody else to do it. People are saying that I'm stoking the culture wars. Well, I'm not. I'm just fighting back. I'm just saying, shut up.
 * Interviewed in "Lee Anderson: single dad, former miner and Sunak’s secret weapon" The Sunday Times (25 June 2023)


 * [The BBC is] a safe haven for perverts.
 * Following allegations against an unnamed BBC presenter (later identified as Huw Edwards) cited in "The BBC’s never-ending crisis" Financial Times (14 July 2023)
 * Originally reported by the Daily Express (10 July 2023).

But in the meantime, in our universities there are a certain group of people who are trying to influence and indoctrinate our young people. He sat down with me on the settee, he put his arm on my hand and he says: "Dad, I've been away for a few months now and I've come back and I'm not the Harry that went away all those months ago. I'm different now, I'm a different person."
 * In just a few months time, young men and young women from all over the country will be going to university, a place of learning. They're going to have a good time, they're going to work hard and hopefully get better careers.
 * [Ten years ago (presumably in 2013), his son began studies at the University of Sheffield] I didn't see him for months, he came back different. He had long hair, he had a beard. His clothes were different, a different attitude and outlook on life. I thought – "my goodness, Harry, what's happened to you."
 * [Anderson said his son had become a vegetarian] Shocking, absolutely shocking. Let that be a warning to you
 * In an appearance on GB News Lee Anderson: Real Time, as cited in "Lee Anderson describes 'shocking' moment son says he's vegetarian", The National (Scotland, 29 July 2023)


 * If they don't like barges then they should f*** off back to France.
 * These people come across the Channel in small boats ... if they don't like the conditions they are housed in here then they should go back to France, or better not come at all in the first place.
 * Speaking to the Express website, as cited in "Tory deputy chairman after he told migrants who don't like barges to 'go back to France'", Sky News (8 August 2023)
 * The Bibby Stockholm barge, moored in Dorset and ultimately intended to hold 500 asylum seekers by the British government, was housing the first 15 individuals from the previous day. Downing Street said the government's position was reflected in the comments of Justice Secretary Alex Chalk who, on LBC, defended Anderson's argument and use of "salty terms".


 * I have had loads, yeah... 55 in one day.
 * As cited in "'I had 55 in one day': Tory MP Lee Anderson reveals daily death threats", ITV News (1 September 2023)


 * My take is we should just put the planes in the air now and send them to Rwanda and show strength.
 * I think we should ignore the laws and send them straight back the same day.
 * "'Ignore the laws and put the planes in the air now': Tory fury after Supreme Court rules against Rwanda migrant plan", LBC (15 November 2023)
 * The government's Rwanda asylum plan had been declared unlawful by the UK's Supreme Court. The plan was intended as a solution to thousands of migrants who have crossed the English channel in small boats.

I know it's a bit parky [cold] up there this time of year. But if people are genuinely escaping war or persecution then a nice Scottish island with a few outbuildings would be suitable. This is a beautiful country. Parts of Scotland are a 'go to' destination, the remote islands – I'd like to be able to afford a place up there. If we can get some accommodation up there, keep these people safe – these people want to be safe, they're fleeing so-called persecution from these war-torn countries. If we can find an island in the Orkneys or up there that's got no one on there to start off with, put some decent accommodation on, then it's job done.
 * [After recalling his suggestion to Boris Johnson around 2021] But I don't think it's fair on the Falkland Islands to be honest; they don’t want these illegal migrants going down there. There's a better option: we can keep them on British soil, if you like. We've got the Orkneys or some remote Scottish island.
 * On GB News, as cited in "Send asylum seekers to Orkney Islands not Rwanda, says Lee Anderson", The Telegraph (22 November 2023)


 * Now there is — we're not taping this, are we? [laughter] — there is a political party that begins with an R that offered me a lot of money to join them. I say a lot of money, I mean a lot of money. ... And I wouldn't join them, OK, because we've a got by-election in Mid-Beds next week. Reform have got a candidate.
 * In an event at Cambridge Rugby Club organised by the South Cambridgeshire Conservative Association (October 2023), as cited in "Lee Anderson: I was offered ‘a lot of money’ to join Reform UK", The Sunday Times (26 November 2023)
 * Reform Party leader Richard Tice denied the claim made by Anderson.

2024–present

 * I think he needs to pipe down a little bit because if the unthinkable happens and next year, we do get a Labour government and Richard Tice is on his media platforms saying what a disaster 'Starmergeddon' and what a disaster the Labour Party are, I shall be reminding Mr Tice it was him that helped them get elected.
 * From a GB News interview, as cited in "Lee Anderson brands Reform UK leader a 'pound shop Nigel Farage'", The Telegraph (4 January 2024)

So I walked out and abstained.
 * I was going to vote no. I went into the no lobby to vote no, because I couldn't see how I could support the bill after backing all the amendments. I got into the no lobby and 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 couldn't vote no.
 * Explaining in a GB News interview why he abstained on the Safety of Rwanda bill, as cited in "Tory MP Lee Anderson did not vote against Rwanda bill because Labour MPs 'giggled' at him", The Independent (18 January 2024).
 * The Rwanda policy was scrapped by the incoming Starmer government in July.


 * [I]t was them that gave me the job [...] It was them that financially backed me, it's them that's protected me, it's them that's given me a political home [...] So why would I knife them in the back?
 * As cited by Amy Gibbons in "No 10 could reinstate Lee Anderson as deputy Tory chairman", The Telegraph (24 January 2024
 * After replying "no" when asked if there was "any conceivable world" in which he would join Reform. He was expressing his "debt of gratitude" to the Conservatives. He said he should have voted for the Rwanda bill and No 10 had commented: "we have a lot of time for Lee".


 * I don't actually believe that the Islamists have got control of our country, but what I do believe is they've got control of [Sadiq] Khan, and they've got control of London.
 * He's actually given our capital city away to his mates
 * Comments on GB News (23 February 2024), as cited in "Sadiq Khan criticises PM for failing to condemn Lee Anderson's remarks", BBC News (23 February 2024).
 * Anderson was responding to an article by the former Home Secretary Suella Braverman for The Telegraph. Khan in response said Anderson was "pouring fuel on the fire of anti-Muslim hatred." Anderson, who was criticised by other Conservatives MPs for his comments, lost his party's parliamentary whip as a result of his comments.


 * If you are wrong, apologising is not a sign of weakness but a sign of strength. But when you think you are right you should never apologise because to do so would be a sign of weakness.
 * Comments on GB News (26 February 2024), as cited in "Lee Anderson digs in as Rishi Sunak condemns Sadiq Khan comments", The Times (26 February 2024).
 * In a radio interview that morning, Rishi Sunak said Anderson's "choice of words" about Khan "wasn’t acceptable and it was wrong".


 * There's not been a turning point. We all know that sometimes politicians are about as trustworthy as journalists in what they say and do.
 * At the press conference announcing his switch to Reform (11 March 2024), as cited in "Ex-Tory deputy chair Lee Anderson joins right-wing populist party Reform UK", The Independent (11 March 2024).
 * Asked about his January comments Reform is "not a proper political party".

About Lee Anderson

 * Anderson thinks he understands Britain, and in some ways he does. But what he's missed is our saddest trait: feeling ashamed to ask for help. Hardly anyone is going to a food bank as a jolly, and when there are now more food banks in the UK than branches of McDonald's, it's clear where the demand really is in Britain today.
 * Anoosh Chakelian "Lee Anderson thinks he knows Britain – but he’s missed one sad key truth", The New Statesman (2 March 2023).


 * The official Tory line on Anderson is that if what he says upsets you, then you're a snob or out of touch. That's an interesting way to describe a significant number of Conservative voters, plus a prime minister immediately forced to clarify that actually he doesn't agree with Lee about the death penalty.
 * Gaby Hinsliff "It’s not just that Lee Anderson is wrong about hanging: he’s also the wrong man to stop the Tories sinking", The Guardian (10 February 2023).