Reform Enters Parliament

Lee Anderson's decision marks a huge moment.

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Before I get to this week’s big news, I want to highlight paid subscriber Yorkie’s comment in response to the Conservatives hitting their lowest poll rating since the 1970s:

“If the parliamentary party decided to go for a fresh leader the next problem would be ‘Who.’

“The high command have had an iron grip on selection of candidates for decades now; this has resulted in a sausage factory system that attempts to turn out identikit politicians who have no ideas of their own and simply follow orders like the cannon fodder they are.

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“I would be interested to know who other readers think could do the job.”

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Stuart Mitchell/@IncMonocle

Bang! Make no mistake about it, the decision by Lee Anderson to become Reform UK’s first MP is a very big deal.

Anderson embodies the electoral realignment that the Tories have now thrown away. His appeal was recognised by the Prime Minister, with the Ashfield MP promoted by Rishi Sunak to become Conservative Deputy Chairman.

If the Tories had actually implemented the agenda that Anderson and the likes of Suella Braverman talk about, they would still be beating Labour in the national polls.

Instead, Sunak has driven Conservative support down to record lows. Reform were just 5 points behind them in a Westminster survey last week.

There is now a very real possibility that Reform could level-peg in the polls with the Conservatives in the weeks and months ahead.

Parliament’s website now reads:

“Lee Anderson is the Reform UK MP for Ashfield and has been an MP continually since 12 December 2019.”

This represents a huge boost for Reform. They now have representation in Parliament and were already the third party in national polls.

It has been another massive miscalculation by Sunak’s allies, who reportedly did not believe Anderson would join Reform.

Grassroots Tories are unlikely to be impressed by Sunak’s mistake. Conservative Home found two-thirds of Tory members were against the decision to suspend Anderson.

Once again those running the Conservative Party have lost touch with the activists who campaigned for them and helped deliver that 2019 majority.

It is worth highlighting what the “proud Reform UK MP for Ashfield” had to say in his statement yesterday:

“To all my loyal constituents, donors, supporters and my family.

“Following what has been a turbulent few weeks for me, in which I have felt unsupported and cast aside by by own party, I have been left to feel politically isolated for representing the common voice of my loyal constituents in Ashfield.

“I have been asked to reverse comments I have made and the stance I have taken, which I have refused to do.

“It is the people of Ashfield that have put me into Westminster and it is their voice I will continue to represent, regardless of party line or consequences to myself or my career. I will always stand by the people of Ashfield regardless of the party I am attached to.

“During this period of being cast aside by my party, it has afforded me the opportunity to really consider the direction of the Conservative Party and how this aligns with the needs and requirements of the real people in Ashfield and Britain.

“I cannot support the direction of the Conservative Party while it does not best serve the needs of the people in Ashfield and also Britain.

“It is time to take back Britain and reinforce the messages of the People of Britain and my loyal constituents in Ashfield.

“Following leaving the Labour Party and joining the Conservative Party I have been very conscious of the perception of me as a politician and being branded a ‘political journeyman’, and I endeavoured to not move parties again unless there was a serious justification or the party I represented no longer aligned with best serving the United Kingdom and the people of Ashfield.

“The situation I find myself in today is that I am no longer part of the Conservative Party, the party have moved me aside and removed the whip as a result of me speaking the truth of the people, which will never change.

“I therefore today announced that I have joined the Reform Party. Richard Tice is fully aware of the values and the needs of Britain and the people of Ashfield, and he has agreed to support my message and the voices of my constituents which is the most important thing to me as not just a politician, but as a decent and proud British citizen who wants nothing more than to take Britain back and give our country the leadership it deserves.”

The New Conservatives group of MPs responded to the news by saying:

“We regret Lee's decision. Supporting Reform makes a less conservative Britain more likely. A Labour government would raise taxes, increase immigration, undo Brexit and divide our society.

“But the responsibility for Lee's defection sits with the Conservative Party.

“We have failed to hold together the coalition of voters who gave us an 80 seat majority in 2019.

“Those voters - in our traditional heartlands and in the Red Wall seats like Ashfield - backed us because we offered an optimistic, patriotic, no-nonsense Conservatism.

“They voted for lower immigration, for a better NHS, for a rebalanced economy, and for pride in our country. 

“Our poll numbers show what the public think of our record since 2019. We cannot pretend any longer that 'the plan is working'. We need to change course urgently.  A change of course does not mean fracturing our Parliamentary Party.

“We were all elected on the promises of 2019. We can hold together AND win back our disenchanted voters - but only if we recommit to serve the whole country, including the millions who feel alienated by mainstream politics and who put their trust in us because we promised change.

“That means commitments on crime, immigration, tax, skills, welfare, housing, defence and the NHS that go far beyond what we are currently offering. The New Conservatives have developed proposals in some of these areas and we are working on others for publication shortly.

“We urge our colleagues to work with us to develop a bold new offer, consistent with the spirit of 2019, that will convince our lost voters that we present a genuine alternative to Labour and the best hope for Britain.”

The problem for those MPs is that they seem to be increasingly sidelined from the direction of their party and the Government.

Remember that despite Conservative support hitting historic lows recently, only a handful of Tory MPs have even had the guts to call for Sunak to go.

One of those is Andrea Jenkyns, who put this to her colleague in Westminster, Anthony Mangnall:

“When are you and fellow colleagues going to wake up?

“The Conservatives need to be Conservative again. You all sat around as Rome started burning.

“Last chance to get a grip of our party and get a new leader or its game over and the socialists are in.”

Most Tory MPs don’t seem to be listening, though. Not to the warnings from Jenkyns, nor to the dire national polls or even the repeated by-election thumpings delivered by voters.

As for the Conservative Party’s official response to all this? A Spokesman had this to say:

“Lee himself said he fully accepted that the Chief Whip had no option but to suspend the whip in these circumstances.

“We regret he’s made this decision. Voting for Reform can’t deliver anything apart from a Keir Starmer-led Labour Government that would take us back to square one - which means higher taxes, higher energy costs, no action on channel crossings, and uncontrolled immigration.”

Oh dear, they’re going to have to do a bit better than that.

The Conservative Government has chosen to crank up the tax burden, failed to stop the boats and ramped legal net migration to new record highs.

A General Election campaign focused merely on saying ‘Labour will be even worse’ rather than defending their own record shows how fragile Conservative support is for what they’ve actually delivered.

And with Lee Anderson now in place as a Reform MP, expect the Tory Government’s record to come under even more scrutiny.

Plus, who is to say it stops here? After all, perhaps Anderson won’t be the only MP joining Reform.