The MP for Ashfield has said he is not ruling out defecting to Reform UK, in a move that would give the rightwing populist party its first MP.
The disgraced former Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson, who has had the whip withdrawn after making disgraceful Islamophobic remarks about Sadiq Khan, may be too inadequate to join Reform UK, the party’ deputy leader has suggested.
Ben Habib suggested that Anderson does not have sufficient calibre to be a Reform UK candidate, telling Times Radio that he would be ‘circumspect’ about Anderson joining Reform UK.
Asked how he would feel about Anderson standing as a reform candidate, Habib said: “I would be quite circumspect about anyone who can’t express themselves accurately, clearly and in matters of great sensitivity without actually being able to identify properly what the issue is.”
Habib continued: “I need to understand what he means by Islamist. I need to understand what’s in his mind. Does he think there’s a group of extreme Muslims controlling Sadiq, or does he think Sadiq is a prejudiced individual who’s perpetrating, you know, divisive politics?”
Anderson has refused to apologise for his Islamophobic remarks after he told GB News last week that Islamists” had “got control” of the mayor of London.
The MP for Ashfield has said he is not ruling out defecting to Reform UK, in a move that would give the rightwing populist party its first MP.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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