Lee Anderson ducks questions on whether he will join Reform following Tory party suspension
Lee Anderson has dodged questions over whether he could join the Reform party following his suspension from the Conservatives for his attack on Sadiq Khan.
Mr Anderson, the now independent MP for Ashfield, was asked whether he would join the rival party led by Richard Tice but refused to answer.
Instead, all he said to reporters was: “What are you waiting here for?”
Mr Anderson was suspended by Rishi Sunak last weekend after he refused to apologise for claiming in an interview with GB News that “Islamists” had “control” over London and its mayor, Sadiq Khan.
The remarks have been widely condemned from across the political divide, and this morning Home Secretary James Cleverly told the Times that Mr Anderson should apologise directly to Mr Khan for his comments.
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Mr Anderson’s suspension has prompted questions about his future and whether he may join Reform, the party founded by Nigel Farage as an alternative for disaffected Tory voters that is now led by Mr Tice.
In an interview with GB News on Monday night, Mr Anderson did not rule out joining Reform.
“You’ll say Lee Anderson rules out/doesn’t rule out joining the Reform party, so I’m making no comment on my future,” he said on GB News, where he is a paid contributor.
Asked if he would be the Conservative candidate for his seat of Ashfield at the next election, Mr Anderson said: “That’s not up to me”.
However, he said he would still be standing at the next election.
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PM: Anderson comments ‘ill-judged’
In his original interview with GB News last week, Mr Anderson told the channel: “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 Khan and they’ve got control of London.
“He’s actually given our capital city away to his mates.”
In a separate statement published by GB News on Monday, Mr Anderson admitted his words were “clumsy” but that they were “borne out of sheer frustration at what is happening to our beautiful capital city”.
However, he doubled down on his refusal to apologise, saying: “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.”
Rishi Sunak broke his silence to condemn Mr Anderson’s words against Mr Khan on Monday, calling them unacceptable and “wrong”.
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Khan: ‘Comments are Islamophobic’
The prime minister also rejected suggestions his party had “Islamophobic” tendencies in light of criticism from his own side, including from Tory peer Baroness Warsi who claimed a new generation of Conservatives were “dragging this great party… into the gutter”.
Baroness Warsi said that “not only is there a hierarchy of racism” in the Tory Party today, “anti-Muslim racism is being used as an electoral campaign tool” and that Muslims “don’t matter” and were considered “fair game”.
Speaking to Speaking on BBC Radio York, the prime minister denied the Tory party has “Islamophobic tendencies” and said: “Lee’s comments weren’t acceptable, they were wrong. That’s why he’s had the whip suspended.”
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He added: “Words matter, especially in the current environment where tensions are running high. I think it’s incumbent on all of us to choose them carefully.”
However, the prime minister repeatedly refused to call Mr Anderson’s remarks Islamophobic while other ministers have refused to say whether the comments were racist.
Last November Mr Tice denied reports that Mr Anderson was offered money to defect to his party, telling Sky News “no money or cash has been offered to any Tory MP whatsoever”.
Earlier this month Mr Farage, who is now an honorary president at Reform, said he believed it was possible to replace the Conservatives with Reform as he predicted an “extinction event” for the government at the next election.
A former Labour frontbencher has urged the government to condemn Donald Trump’s “barbaric” plan for a US takeover of Gaza as “ethnic cleansing”, in a move that risks reigniting internal party splits over the Middle East conflict.
Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, a former shadow mental health minister who ran to be deputy leader, said the government needed to express “in no uncertain terms” its disapproval of the suggestion that Gazans be resettled into neighbouring countries.
In a letter to Foreign Secretary David Lammy, seen by Sky News, the Labour MP for Tooting said the US president’s comments risked sounding the “final death knell” for the internationally-supported two-state solution, in which an independent Palestinian state would exist alongside the state of Israel.
“I would like to express my outrage and ask that you take urgent steps to prevent this, including voicing the government’s disapproval in no uncertain terms,” she wrote.
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“This is not a humanitarian gesture of compassion – it is the forced removal of a population and a plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza,” she added.
Dr Allin-Khan, who was one of the 56 Labour MPs to break ranks and vote for a controversial SNP ceasefire motion last year, cited definitions of ethnic cleansing by the United Nations and the European Union as “using force or intimidation to remove from a given area, persons of another ethnic or religious group”.
Dr Rosena Allin-Khan was one of 56 Labour MPs who voted for a ceasefire in Gaza
“The world intervened in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s and roundly condemned ethnic cleansing in Rwanda,” she added. “We must meet these plans to remove millions of Palestinians from their homes, naked as they are, with the same robust response.”
She asked: “Will the government stand firm and condemn President Trump’s stated aim to take over and forcibly remove the Palestinian population of Gaza?
“Further to this, can you confirm that there will be no UK support or involvement in this disgraceful plan? Finally, will you work with the international community to support UN resolutions opposing the ethnic cleansing of Gaza?”
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Two states is ‘only’ solution
Mr Trump sparked international alarm overnight when he laid out his plans for the Middle East in a news conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.
The US president called Gaza a “demolition site” and said the two million people who currently live there could go to “various domains”.
He did not rule out sending US troops to the region, and said the US would “develop” Gaza and create “thousands and thousands of jobs”.
“Everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land, developing and creating thousands of jobs,” Mr Trump said, adding that Gaza could become “the Riviera of the Middle East” where “the world’s people” could live.
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Trump: ‘We’ll own Gaza’
Mr Trump suggested that Palestinians could be relocated to Egypt and Jordan. Both countries, other Arab nations and Palestinian leaders have all opposed this move.
The US president’s comments come at an awkward time for Sir Keir Starmer, as he seeks to build a close relationship with the US and stop the UK being subject to the punitive tariffs that have been imposed on China, Mexico and Canada – although the latter two countries have since earned a 30-day reprieve as negotiations take place.
The UK government has sought to distance itself from Mr Trump’s remarks, with Mr Lammy saying the UK has “always been clear in our belief that we must see two states”.
“We must see Palestinians live and prosper in their homelands in Gaza and the West Bank,” he added.
And speaking to Sky News’ Kay Burley this morning, Environment Secretary Steve Reed said the UK’s position was that Palestinians “need to be able to return to their homes and then start to rebuild them”.
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However, he stopped short of criticising Mr Trump for his remarks, saying that he would “not provide a running commentary on the pronouncements of the president”.
Asked if he was being disparaging, Mr Reed replied “not at all” and argued that Mr Trump should be given “credit for the role he played in securing the ceasefire in the first place”.
The ceasefire between Israel and Gaza was agreed last month after more than a year of war following Hamas’s terrorist attack on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 Israelis and saw 250 others taken hostage.
More than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Hamas’s attack, according to local authorities.
UN officials have estimated that around 200,000 Palestinians have made the journey to the north of the Gaza Strip after Israel lifted its closure of the area following the ceasefire deal.
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