Lee Anderson (British politician)

He was a long-time Labour Party member, and served as a councillor in the Huthwaite and Brierly ward of Ashfield, where he was elected in 2015.[4] Anderson also worked as office manager for Ashfield's then-Labour MP, Gloria De Piero, having campaigned alongside her for the 2015 and 2017 UK general elections. Anderson was a vocal Brexiteer, having supported the Vote Leave campaign in the 2016 EU Referendum.

While serving as a Labour councillor on Ashfield Council in 2018, he was suspended by the party locally for allegedly dumping boulders to block access to a local camp site. He was later given a community protection notice over the action, and instructed to remove the boulders.[5]

He defected to the Conservatives in March 2018,[6] later being elected as the Conservative councillor for the Oakham ward in Mansfield, a neighbouring district, following the May 2019 local elections.

In July 2019, he was selected as the Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for Ashfield.[7] He was elected as a Conservative MP at the 2019 general election, succeeding his former boss, Gloria De Piero, who stood down before the election.[8] Anderson won with a majority of 5,733 votes, with the Ashfield Independent Party candidate Jason Zadrozny coming in second place, and Labour dropping into third place. This was the first time that the Conservatives had won the seat since the 1977 by-election.

During the 2019 general election campaign, in the wake of a murder on the Carsic council estate in his constituency, Anderson said that certain "nuisance" council tenants were "making people's lives a complete misery". He said: "Let's have [the tenants] in the field, picking potatoes or any other seasonal vegetables, back in the tent, cold shower, lights out, six o'clock, same again the next day."[9] He was criticised by the Labour Party, who said the idea amounted to "forced labour camps".[9]

Anderson was also caught setting up a staged door-knock encounter with a friend whilst being filmed by Channel 4 News reporter Michael Crick. Prior to the staged visit, Anderson told the man he arranged to meet to "make out you know who I am, that you know I'm the candidate but not that you are a friend".[10] Anderson justified his actions by stating that he "had been trying to make sure that somebody was in", before apologising several weeks later.[11]

Anderson was one of three Conservative Party candidates investigated by the party over claims of antisemitism during the election campaign.[12] The investigation was opened on the grounds that he was an active member of a Facebook group in which other members supported Tommy Robinson and promoted George Soros conspiracy theories.[13][14] Whilst under investigation, he was confronted by the head of the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism over a letter he co-signed, published by the Daily Telegraph, which employed the phrase "Cultural Marxism".[15]

In February 2021, Anderson was criticised by Ashfield District Council leader Jason Zadrozny of the Ashfield Independents, who described Anderson's behaviour as "consistently disappointing" and stated that he called for the government to scrap Ashfield's Future High Streets' Fund bid as he was concerned that this would result in the Ashfield Independents receiving praise.[16]

In June 2021 Anderson announced he would not be watching the England national football team at UEFA Euro 2020 games in response to the players taking the knee prior to matches. He said: "The FA and the England football team have made a big mistake in supporting the taking of the knee before football matches ahead of the European Championships. The FA, Premier League and footballers now run the risk of becoming like the Labour Party and that is having nothing in common with their traditional supporters."[17] Referring to the association of the taking the knee gesture with the group Black Lives Matter he said: "For the first time in my life I will not be watching my beloved England team whilst they are supporting a political movement whose core principles aim to undermine our very way of life."[18]

On 14 December 2021, Anderson broke the party whip to vote against the government's 'Plan B' COVID-19 restrictions, which included vaccine passports and the expansion of laws requiring face coverings to be worn in public places.[19][20] He also voted against mandatory COVID-19 vaccination of NHS staff.[21]