Two tales of maverick MPs, both incredibly popular with the party membership but both forced out because they represented a challenge to the leader’s authority and were considered too outspoken and too rightwing.
One man links both those tales – Ashfield MP Lee Anderson. In 2024 he was the maverick MP ousted from Rishi Sunak’s Tories by an unbending chief whip. But in 2025 he is the party chief whip forcing the latest outspoken right winger Rupert Lowe out of Reform.
By chance, memories of his painful episode with the Conservatives have been replayed in detail with the publication of the diaries of Rishi Sunak’s former Tory chief whip Simon Hart entitled “Ungovernable: Diaries of a Chief Whip”.
30p Lee
Lee Anderson is a former miner and Labour party activist who after his election as a Tory MP became the face of the new red wall 2010 intake.
His plain speaking approach and blunt, colourful language made him a delight for journalists on rightwing newspapers, an icon for the Tory right, but a nightmare for everyone else particularly leftwing commentators and Tory whips trying to control him.
He gave me two unforgettable stories suggesting the BBC “is a haven for perverts” in regard to the Huw Edwards scandal, and that asylum seekers who did not like living on the Bibby Stockholm should “f*** off back to France.”
He was even more famous for going around telling the low income families they could cook meals for 30p which gave him the nickname “30p Lee”.
Those in Reform (including Mr Anderson) now complaining about Mr Lowe’s rightwing rhetoric on “mass deportations” and “rape gangs”, suggesting the Great Yarmouth MP is “not a team player”, seem to have conveniently forgotten Anderson’s prior record of doing the same.
Losing the whip
Things came to a head on 22 February 2024 when Mr Anderson said on his GB News show that “Islamists…have got control of [London Mayor Sadiq] Khan, and they’ve got control of London.”
Mr Hart’s diary entry on 23 February, the day after revealed his displeasure.
“Word reaches me from a colleague that Lee Anderson has, as he put it, ‘escaped from his cage.’…Of course, most of what he has said is fine, if a little unsubtle, but the direct link between Khan and terrorism is the wrong side of the red line.”
He noted that the Tories had successfully forced Labour to kick out their Rochdale by-election candidate Azhar Ali at the time over antisemitism which put the Tories then in an embarrassing position over Mr Anderson’s comments.
“It falls to me to speak to Lee and broker some sort of apology and retraction or clarification. This being Lee, he is having none of it. I explain that he can stand by everything he said about Khan but that he needs to rephrase one sentence. Still nothing. He won’t apologise because he says it is a matter of pride, even though there is an easy way out of this.”
After Mr Anderson failed to see reason, the inevitable moment comes.
“He knows, and I know, that we are left with no option but to suspend the whip.”
There now seems to be some irony that Mr Anderson and other leading members of Reform are complaining about Mr Lowe refusing to tone down his rhetoric.
Farage pounces
As the story broke of Mr Anderson losing the whip, I was in Washington DC in the Starbucks at the Gaylord conference center where the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) was taking place. Sitting opposite me was Nigel Farage who I revealed the news to.
He reacted instantly: “Lee Anderson should join Reform UK.”
Mr Farage at that point was honorary president of Reform but still the majority shareholder having handed the leadership to Richard Tice. The wheels were in motion.
Trying to get Anderson to see reason
Tories in the rightwing Common Sense and New Conservative groups were fighting a rearguard action to get the whip restored for Mr Anderson.
But frustrations over Mr Hart, who many believed had a vendetta against the right, were growing as a number of them briefed me for an analysis piece for the Express. Mr Hart noted his reaction to reading the article on 28 February.
“The Express describes me as the ‘wokest chief whip ever’….and it is not even 1 April.”
By 4 March Mr Hart noted that efforts to find a compromise with Mr Anderson are failing.
“Met with Lee Anderson to discuss ‘the way back’. It grates me a bit as he’s totally unaware of the damage he is doing. There is a lot of northern ‘speak as I find’ rhetoric.”
Defection to Reform
Late on Sunday 10 March a calling notice drops for an emergency press conference with Reform. I messaged the then deputy leader Ben Habib (later forced out of Reform himself by Mr Farage).
Mr Habib says it is “a defection” and after some prodding reveals it is Lee Anderson. He was clearly personally uncomfortable about bringing Mr Anderson into the party.
But given Mr Farage’s statement at CPAC and the tale that Reform had tried to previously bribe Mr Anderson to join, this was no surprise.
I broke the story just before the press conference was due to begin on the morning of 11 March.
As leader it was Mr Tice who officially unveiled Mr Anderson. As deputy leader now it is Mr Tice who is being sent around the studios explaining why Mr Lowe will not be welcome back because he is not a team player.
Meanwhile, back in the chief whip’s office, Mr Hart was raging.
“Lee Anderson defects to Reform – despite personal assurances that he won’t. I have tried to avoid the conclusion that he is a total k**b, but he has made it nearly impossible.”
What it means for the Rupert Lowe crisis
The parallels between Mr Anderson and Mr Lowe play a large part of what is fuelling the conspiracy theories that the Great Yarmouth MP has been whacked because he represents a threat to Mr Farage following Elon Musk’s endorsement as an alternative leader.
While we still do not know all the details, it is clear that not being a team player, being very rightwing and outspoken were not problems for Reform when it came to recruiting Mr Anderson. But they do seem to be problems for Reform in allowing Mr Lowe to stay.
The clear conclusion is that in Mr Anderson’s case it was political opportunism to damage the Tories and strengthen Reform. That seems to be the only substantial difference.
While, Mr Farage and Reform will get through this current difficulty the comparisons between the two cases of Mr Anderson and Mr Lowe have not gone unnoticed.
Simon Hart’s Ungovernable: The Political Diaries of a Chief Whip is on sale now.
