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Lee Anderson fuelled hypothesis he is to affix Nigel Farage’s Reform UK by assembly with the occasion’s leader a day after dropping the Tory whip.
The former Tory deputy chair has been linked with a transfer to the previous Brexit Party since being suspended by the Conservatives for Islamophobic feedback about Sadiq Khan.
Mr Anderson met Mr Tice, who succeeded Mr Farage as leader, at a Holiday Inn resort, at junction 28 of the M1 in South Normanton, Derbyshire on Sunday, GB News reported.
Lee Anderson MP has refused to rule out becoming a member of Reform UK, with experiences he met the occasion’s leader after having the Tory whip eliminated (Victoria Jones/PA)
(PA Wire)
It got here simply 24 hours after he had been suspended by the Conservatives.
On Tuesday Mr Anderson launched a contemporary assault on Mr Khan, accusing him of having fun with protest scenes in Whitehall which trigger disruption to parliament and forged the federal government “in a bad light”.
He additionally dropped the most recent trace that he may defect to Reform UK, as the rebel right-wing occasion piles strain on Rishi Sunak.
In his newest feedback made throughout an interview with Channel 5 information, Mr Anderson was requested if he would take again final week’s remarks.
He mentioned he would “probably change my words slightly”.
He added: “I think it’s all political, I think he almost enjoys seeing these scenes on Whitehall and on Parliament Square, which disrupts parliament, which puts my government in a bad light. I think he just turns a blind eye. It’s politics.”
Mr Anderson misplaced the Tory whip on the weekend after he claimed “Islamists” had “got control” of the mayor of London.
Rishi Sunak made Lee Anderson deputy chairman of the Conservative Party
(Jacob King/PA Wire)
Pressed over whether or not he would be part of the right-wing Reform UK occasion, the previous Labour councillor declined to remark however instructed GB News he had “been on a political journey”.
He mentioned: “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 additionally mentioned he meant to face on the subsequent election.
His feedback got here as senior Conservatives confronted mounting strain to explain his assault on Sadiq Khan as “Islamophobic”.
Radio station LBC abruptly halted an interview with unlawful immigration minister Michael Tomlinson, accusing him of failing to reply the query.
In questions from broadcasters on Tuesday, Mr Tomlinson refused 11 occasions to elucidate why he thought Mr Anderson’s feedback had been “wrong”.
His Home Office colleague Tom Pursglove additionally refused to make use of the time period, telling Times Radio: “I don’t think Lee personally is racist but what he said was unacceptable.”
The prime minister and others have condemned Mr Anderson’s feedback, however have to this point shied away from calling them “Islamophobic”.
Labour has criticised that stance as “weak”, with one frontbencher saying the prime minister was “in hock” to “a strange coalition of MPs”.
Bridget Phillipson, the shadow schooling secretary, mentioned on Tuesday: “He [Anderson] ought to know higher than that, he has been a senior determine throughout the Conservative Party.
“But I think it speaks to Rishi Sunak’s weakness on this that his response has been wholly inadequate.”
On Tuesday morning, Downing Street mentioned the PM regarded Mr Anderson’s feedback as unsuitable as a result of that they had conflated all Muslims with Islamist extremism.
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