Lee Anderson's resignation leaves a hole in Tory red wall

Rishi Sunak relied on Lee Anderson, the former Conservative Party deputy chairman, to help him win over voters he couldn't reach. Photo: Matthew Horwood/Getty Images

The resignation of Lee Anderson, one of the most prominent right-wing «Red Wallers» elected in 2019, poses a big and unwanted problem for Rishi Sunak.

Prime Minister, considered a leftist in his party, he was counting on the deputy chairman of the Conservative Party to help him win the next election by winning the support of voters he could not reach.

Advisers in Downing Street considered him a «secret weapon» in their bid to secure a fifth successive election victory for the Conservatives.

Now out of government, the No 10 party will be concerned about thousands of Tory voters on the right parts of the party will look for other seats when the next elections take place this year.

On Tuesday night, Conservative insiders wondered how it was possible that Mr Sunak, months before the election, had found himself in a position where he had managed to alienate the most public face of Boris Johnson's Red Wall victory.

G Mr Anderson, a former miner and Labor councilor, defected to the Tories in 2018 and a year later was elected Conservative MP for Ashfield in Nottinghamshire.

He has become one of the Tory MPs' most recognizable names. Red Wall and has a reputation for saying the unspeakable.

In July 2021, he announced that he would not watch England's matches at the Euro tournament in protest against player dissatisfaction. decision to kneel.

He later accused the travelers in Ashfield of theft, saying that most of those who crossed the English Channel in small boats, were economic migrants, and told poor people they could cook for 30p a day instead of visiting food banks.

He strengthened his position in the party by replacing Esther McVeigh as chair of the Blue Collar Conservatives, where he urged leaders to put tax cuts first.

It was therefore seen as a surprise in February 2023 when Mr. Mr Sunak, a few months after becoming prime minister, made him one of the vice-chairs of the Tory party.

That didn't stop him from causing controversy: he said that migrants who don't like it when they are placed on barges and “must be sent back to France.”

He later called on Mr Sunak to ignore the Supreme Court and send the migrants away. Rwanda, adding: “We should just get the planes in the air right now.”

Not one of the 10 insiders in recent weeks said they viewed him as a “secret weapon in the election.”< /p>

Tory headquarters have been busy setting up his social media profile to ensure his views are shared in the same way as those of the Prime Minister.

Tory strategists know that although he supported Brexit , Mr Sunak was seen by many would-be Conservatives, particularly Red Wall supporters, as too centrist and not strong enough on issues such as immigration.

They hoped Mr Anderson's strident views would help keep many of these voters, especially former Labor voters. For the first time, retain voters who supported the Conservatives in 2019.

This is now less likely, increasing concerns that many of these voters may be attracted to parties like Reform.

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