Lee Anderson: The Red Meat Brexiteers Need

'The Tory faithful will be hoping Lee Anderson will put some much-needed lead back in the party’s pencil.'

Stuart Mitchell/@IncMonocle

Ahead of yesterday’s “Rishi reshuffle,” critics – including a growing number of the Tory faithful – were fearing there was a feeling of “rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic” about proceedings.

But Brexiteers and the Red Wall were thrown a surprise lifeline, in the announcement of Lee Anderson - the “Ashfield Anvil” – as new Deputy Chairman of the party.

On cue, the Twitterati and Westminster media clique clutched their pearls.

If you can define a man by his critics - including Remainstream Media – then you could deduce that Brexiteers got the best candidate.

Speaking as perhaps the journalist who knows Lee best – I stood against him as a Brexit Party candidate in Ashfield in 2019 and was the first to shake his hands when he walloped me – his appointment makes perfect sense.

Yesterday morning, I’d been on GB News championing Lee as the best candidate for Chair – a post that went to Remainer Greg Hands. Lee is already the Chair of the Blue Collar Conservatives and is looked to in the Red Wall as their de facto leader.

Brash, non-PC, outspoken, calls a spade a spade, Lee’s not your usual Tory. Which is precisely why CCHQ needs him. When I asked Lee why he’s been appointed, he said: “They like the way I communicate”.

So where Lee’s “Guardian-reading, esapdrille-wearing” critics see vulgarity, his allies sniff a victory for common sense.

Lee’s making much of his “pit to Parliament journey” and his journey from coal miner, through Labour Councillor to Tory MP,  used to be the stuff that we championed in Britain.

But then came Brexit – and our political and media elites were handed a defeat they have never accepted. Yet Lee’s snipers might save themselves the breath.

Today he told me: “The more my critics criticise me, the more I know I am doing and saying the right things. If they ever stop criticising me, then that's the time to worry”.

Plus their lame attack lines – that “hot mic” incident when Lee fluffed-up a friend on a Daily Mail doorstep, Lee saying nuisance tenants should pick potatoes, the impotent “30p Lee” nickname – signal-boost his bolshiness and actively improve his ratings among his growing army of fans, who are sick of establishment candidates and media bullies.

If anything, Lee’s growing army of fans were disappointed he didn’t pip Greg Hands to become Chairman, but on this Lee is typically pragmatic.

“I joined the party less than five years ago, within 18 months I was a Conservative MP and within three years the Deputy Chairman,” he says. “I will take that every day of the week”.

With a long, hard battle ahead of next year’s General Election, the Tory faithful will be hoping Lee Anderson will put some much-needed lead back in the party’s pencil.

Whether Lee can help save the Tories, or retain his under-fire seat in Ashfield remains to be seen (although this week, his battered Labour opponent in 2019, Natalie Fleet, opted to not stand against Lee, choosing for the safer bet of Bolsover instead). But one thing’s for sure. Buckle up for the Anderson Express: it won’t ever be boring.