Sir Keir Starmer bet £50 that former Tory deputy leader Lee Anderson will lose his seat at the general election.

The Labor leader put down his bets after a reporter asked him if he thought Mr Anderson would retain his constituency at the next national election.

“No, I don’t,” Sir Keir told Mirror Earlier this week, reporters and a group of other employees from the paper toured the paper’s newsroom.

“A bet?” the reporter then asked, before Labor shook hands in acceptance, video of the conversation shows.

“Jonathan Ashworth just lost £10 recently, didn’t he?” Sir Keir then joked light-heartedly, referring to a colleague who had recently lost money in a bet.

Shadow treasurer Ashworth bet on live television earlier this month that Rishi Sunak would call a general election on May 2, but the chancellor later ruled out an early election in the spring.

Ashfield MP Anderson recently defected from the Conservatives to the Reform Britain party founded by Nigel Farage after he was suspended for making Islamophobic comments about London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

Mr Anderson, a former miner, represents Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, an area in the “red wall” – a traditionally working-class, pro-Labour seat with around 40 seats, mainly in the north and midlands.

These constituencies were key to Boris Johnson’s landslide victory in 2019, and analysts say the Conservatives must hold on to most of them to have any chance of winning a majority at the next election, which must happen no later than Taking place in January 2025.

The latest Redwall poll from Redfield & Wilton Strategies on March 20 shows Labor leading the Tories by 24%, the same as the last poll last month and the biggest Labor lead in these seats since the end of August Leading edge.

It was the Conservatives’ lowest share of the vote since Mr Sunak became prime minister, and just 3 percentage points higher than their lowest share of the vote recorded in the Redfield & Wilton Strategies Red Wall poll (21%).

The survey also showed Mr Sunak’s approval rating at -25%, while Sir Keir’s approval rating was -1%.

Mr Anderson, who became Britain’s only Reform MP after defecting, announced the move at a press conference “I just want to go back to my country”.

A March poll by Redfield & Wilton Strategies showed support for reformists at 16 percent, a record high and up two percentage points from February.

Some 21% of Conservative voters in 2019 said they would vote to reform Britain if a general election were held tomorrow.