‘I Want My Country Back’: Lee Anderson Ditches Tories To Join Fellow GB News Hosts At Reform UK

GB News host and sitting MP Lee Anderson is ditching the Tories to join GB News colleague Richard Tice at Reform UK, following a storm of controversy over his unrepentant stance on remarks about Islamists and London mayor Sadiq Kahn.

Reform UK is rebranded from the eurosceptic Brexit Party established by another GB News host Nigel Farage, who still serves as the party’s honourary president.

Tice, the party’s leader, made the announcement in an impromptu live streamed statement on Monday.

Sky News’ deputy political editor Sam Coates first raised speculation this morning after posting a screengrab from the Tory WhatsApp group, showing Anderson’s removal:

The news comes just weeks after it was revealed that Anderson had secretly met with Tice. Anderson, who was Tory deputy chair until his failed rebellion against Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda deportation bill, lost the Tory whip in February for comments made on GB News, in which he suggested that Islamists were in control of Khan and London.

Despite pressure from to apologise from fellow Conservative, Anderson remained steady in his refusal to do so. He went on to blast Conservatives for not showing him a “bit more backing.”

Less than 24 hours after his suspension, over the remarks about Khan, Anderson met with Tice just 10 miles from his constituency for a “one to one” at a Holiday Inn hotel in Derbyshire.

The comments made by Anderson and the action sent the Conservatives into a spiral, with some sympathetic to Anderson and outside critics going so far as to claim the issue is one of party-wide “systemic Islamophobia.”

Ahead of a potential general election, the growing influence of Reform UK to the Tory right continues to threaten to draw votes. The move marks Anderson’s third party switch in 6 years, having initially been a Labour MP before moving to the Conservatives.