For Rishi Sunak, there’s no way to reverse Lee Anderson’s defection other than a physical blow

Tripartite Lee Anderson. Labour, Conservatives and now Reform. Just weeks ago, he lost his job as party deputy chairman for opposing the Rwanda bill and refusing to accept the Reform Party’s advice. “They gave me a political home, why should I stab them in the back?”

It was an all-out frontal attack on Monday as Mr Anderson, who was suspended from the party last month for claiming “Islamists” had “controlled” London mayor Sadiq Khan, joined Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, dealing a heavy blow to Rishi Sunak. .

Mr Anderson told the audience at a brief media briefing that he had done “a lot of soul-searching” and decided to quit the Conservative Party to “take back my country”, as he lashed out at old colleagues, accusing them of stifling “free”. Speech” and tried to stop him on the grounds of “speaking his mind.”

“People will say I gambled. I’m ready to gamble on myself,” he told the audience. “Like millions of people across the country, all I want is my country back.”

His defection is undoubtedly a coup for the Reform Party, the successor to Farage’s Brexit Party, which caters to the right-wing populism of Donald Trump and its “Make Britain Great Again” agenda slogan.

Latest politics: Nigel Farage hails defection that gives his party its first MP

For Mr Sunak, there is no way to turn the situation around other than a physical blow. In the hours after Mr Anderson’s defection – with more warning from Britain’s reformist Richard Tice – other Conservative MPs came forward to express regret rather than anger over Mr Anderson’s defection , are once again in the spotlight because they side with Mr Anderson’s views. The current prime minister simply cannot contain deep partisan divisions.

The party’s right-wing New Conservatives issued a statement saying “we can no longer pretend that the plan is working” and urged the prime minister to “urgently change course”.

On Monday, many Conservative MPs wanted to keep a low profile. Some sympathized with Mr Anderson, others were angry at him, a former cabinet minister who told me he was a man who “puts his ego and personal status above all public interests” and said Mr Anderson only wanted ” Seeking attention and headlines, not”. Rather than serving the public, this is the kind of unprincipled behavior the public abhors.” Another minister texted Mr Anderson as “just an angry rude man”.

Talk to people in the cabinet and government and the message you get is “disappointed” and “sad” that this has ended, but it’s an election year and they have to get on with it. Those around the Prime Minister do not want to start a war with Mr Anderson – perhaps so as not to anger the tribe further. “It’s not ideal and he ends up joining a party he doesn’t really want to support,” one senior source said.

Another No. 10 said that while they were disappointed by the incident, no one was greater than the team. “Sometimes you have a great player but if they disrupt the whole team you don’t want them on the team. We’re going to keep working hard, it’s an election year,” they said.

Government officials have also dismissed MPs’ discussion of a No. 10 split as some Tory sources spoke of pessimism among the Prime Minister’s team, one of whom told me Mr Sunak’s inner circle had unanimously decided to suspend Mr Anderson’s position – although they are prepared to get him back if he apologizes.

But however much they try to play it down, Mr Anderson is symptomatic of a deeper problem facing the Conservatives at the general election, not only falling far behind Labour, but now also having to fight the party against right-wing reformists. Now the poll number is about 12%.

read more:
Fears government will use new extremist list to embarrass Labor
Starmer hopes he can resolve ‘estranged’ relationship with father

There’s no doubt that Lee Anderson’s megaphone will only get bigger in the coming weeks.

After the media conference, Mr Theis gave a taste of what was to come, telling me the Conservatives should be “punished” for breaking their manifesto promises on immigration.

“We are here to replace the Conservatives in many areas, we are here for the medium term,” Mr Tice told me. “The Conservatives are doomed. They are toxic and they are being punished at the polls, and rightly so.”

Today is a reminder of Mr Sunak’s inability to hold together the coalition Boris Johnson put together after Brexit in 2019.

Those on the Tory right will now argue more loudly that Mr Sunak must move to the right on immigration, the environment and gender issues to win back voters in seats such as Mr Anderson’s Ashfield. Mr. Anderson’s version of conservatism is anathema to voters in the South, Southwest and Blue Wall in this county. Throughout, the party was stuck in a civil war death spiral rather than talking about the economy and Conservative policy.