Reform MP Lee Anderson has called on the Conservatives to “listen” to Nigel Farage and not “diss” him, following a party ban.
All six Conservative leadership candidates have imposed a “ban” on the Reform UK leader from joining or striking a deal with their party.
Detailing his stance on Farage, Tory leadership hopeful Mel Stride told Chopper’s Political Podcast that he has “made it clear” there would be “no deal” between Reform and the Conservatives.
Stride declared: “He wants to destroy the Conservative Party, and this this is one of the things that he says reasonably frequently.”
Lee Anderson has called on the Conservatives to ‘stop dissing’ Reform UK leader Nigel Farage
PA / GB News
Discussing the fallout on GB News, Anderson claimed Farage is likely “not losing sleep” over the ban and admitted he is “disappointed” with the Tory MPs who have united against Reform.
Anderson fumed: “Look at the six of them in the leadership contest. Me personally, I’ve got a bigger majority than all of them -I’ve got a bigger vote share than Kemi, so they need to look at people like me and Nigel and see why we won our seats.
“These are people that nearly lost their seats, and they’re having to go at Nigel. If they want to win back those millions of Conservative voters that they lost at the last election, maybe they should be listening to people like Nigel Farage instead of dissing him.”
When pressed by host Patrick Christys on whether Farage should be “more open” to doing a deal with the Tories to help reunite the right, Anderson defended the decision of his party leader to not engage with the Conservatives.
Mel Stride told GB News that there will be ‘no deal’ between the Conservatives and Nigel Farage
GB News
Anderson explained: “In the 2019 election, I think Nigel stood down in about 100 seats, and he did that to allow Boris Johnson and the Conservative Party to get an 80 seat majority. And what happened after the election? Not so much as a thank you from the Conservative Party.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
“I think that was pretty poor form. On behalf of the Conservative Party, they should have reached out to Nigel and thanked him for what he did. So why on earth should Nigel do a deal?”
Offering his verdict on Mel Stride’s attack on Farage and his remarks on Southport, Anderson swiped that he “couldn’t pick Stride out of a lineup”.
Anderson told GB News: “I have to look twice at him sometimes to remind myself who he actually is. I think it’s a bit rich coming from him. He’s a good guy, he’s a decent guy, but he shouldn’t be talking about Nigel Farage like this.
“Nigel is the most popular politician in this country at the moment, and definitely the most influential politician in my lifetime. So when the Conservative Party start dissing him, they’re doing themselves no favours at all.”
Lee Anderson said the Tories should be ‘reaching out’ to Reform UK instead of banning Farage
GB News
When quizzed on the future of Reform UK, Anderson claimed that the party is set for “council election wins” and the Conservatives should be “reaching out” to unite against Labour.
Anderson said: “We’re on the uppers, we’re really on the way up now for the Reform Party.
“Our membership has gone from 20,000 when I first joined up to nearly 80,000.
“We’re definitely going to win council seats next time. The momentum is with the Reform Party, and if anybody is reaching out, it should be the Conservative Party.”