Both Labour and group of Conservative MPs say Lee Anderson defection highlights Tory failings – UK politics live | Politics

The Institute for Government thinktank has published a report today setting out plans to reform how the centre of government works. It says the current No 10/Cabinet Office machinery is “not equipped to meet the challenges of the rest of the 21st century” and it proposes:

No 10 and the Cabinet Office should not continue in their current form, and should instead be restructured into a new Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and a separate Department for the Civil Service, housed in a modernised Downing Street and 70 Whitehall complex. It also calls for the appointment of a new first secretary of state to drive the government’s priorities, the creation of an executive cabinet committee made of a small number of key ministers, for splitting up of the cabinet secretary’s role and responsibilities, and reiterates the IfG’s call for a new civil service statute.

The former prime ministers Sir John Major and Gordon Brown both spoke at the launch, and they both endorsed much of what was in it.

In his speech Major conceded that his own party did not have a good record at governance. He said:

Let me be clear about this: Three prime ministers in one parliament, with a few malcontents seeking a fourth, does not help the perception of the centre of government.

Nor does a supreme court ruling that the government has broken the law.

Nor is it a good optic when ministers indulge in public arguments, openly blame or, in one or two occasions, insult their civil servants. Or when they favour the advice of often inexperienced political advisers over that of civil servants with years of specialist experience and knowledge. Or when they sack senior civil servants who offer candid advice, which simply did not suit the government’s thinking.

None of that conduct is conducive to high morale or good government. Politics needs changes to create and project a far more effective and trusted system.

Major also said that, although he agreed the cabinet has become “too large and cumbersome”, he thought there were “practical drawbacks to a formal inner cabinet” proposed by the IfG saying it would alienate those who are excluded. He went on:

The commission’s objective of a smaller decision-making body to advise cabinet could be achieved by appointing an informal cabinet sub-committee of appropriate ministers, or ad hoc meetings chaired by the prime minister.

Ben Quinn

Conservative MPs are on alert for a possible defection from their ranks, with northern backbenchers from ‘red wall’ seats regarded as the most likely.

One senior MP told the Guardian:

I don’t think this is a moment we will forget about in a hurry.

I think Lee Anderson was probably the most recognisable of the red wall intake of MPs at the last general election. He therefore carries a certain amount of weight, political weight, and I think it is pretty serious.

Another said they had “one or two” of their colleagues who could well decide to abandon the Tories for Reform UK.

I think that the red wall is pretty demoralised at the moment, not least because of what Lee has just done and I think that there will be some people from the same part of the country who might well decide to go.

Tory MPs said that Anderson’s departure did not come as surprise and many had been waiting for it since news emerged that he had held talks with Reform UK leader Richard Tice at a hotel.

The New Conservatives, a group of rightwing, socially conservative MPs pushing for lower immigration and tax cuts, has put out a statement saying Lee Anderson’s defection confirms that red wall Tory voters have been let down.

In posts on X, the group, which is co-chaired by Danny Kruger and Miriam Cates, also says the party can no longer claim that “the plan is working” – despite this being the core message being used by No 10 and CCHQ in Tory campaigning at the moment.

We regret Lee’s decision. Supporting Reform makes a less conservative Britain more likely. A Labour government would raise taxes, increase immigration, undo Brexit and divide our society. (2/7)

But the responsibility for Lee’s defection sits with the Conservative Party. We have failed to hold together the coalition of voters who gave us an 80 seat majority in 2019. Those voters – in our traditional heartlands and in the Red Wall seats like Ashfield – backed us because we offered an optimistic, patriotic, no-nonsense Conservatism. They voted for lower immigration, for a better NHS, for a rebalanced economy, and for pride in our country. (3/7)

Our poll numbers show what the public think of our record since 2019. We cannot pretend any longer that ‘the plan is working’. We need to change course urgently. A change of course does not mean fracturing our Parliamentary Party. (4/7)

We were all elected on the promises of 2019. We can hold together AND win back our disenchanted voters – but only if we recommit to serve the whole country, including the millions who feel alienated by mainstream politics and who put their trust in us because we promised change. (5/7)

That means commitments on crime, immigration, tax, skills, welfare, housing, defence and the NHS that go far beyond what we are currently offering. The New Conservatives have developed proposals in some of these areas and we are working on others for publication shortly. (6/7)

We urge our colleagues to work with us to develop a bold new offer, consistent with the spirit of 2019, that will convince our lost voters that we present a genuine alternative to Labour and the best hope for Britain. (7/7)

The last time Richard Tice, the Reform UK leader, held a press conference at Westminster, it was a bit of a flop because journalists were expecting Nigel Farage, the party’s honorary president, and he was a no-show. This time Tice did have a biggish personality with him, and a news story. According to the Guardian’s poll tracker, support for Reform UK have gone from 9% at the start of the year to 11%. Today’s announcement confirms the party has some momentum behind it, and it may provide a futher boost. But support at this level is way behind what Ukip was getting at the height of its popularity, and it almost certainly would not be enough for the party to win any seats at the next election.

Apart from the fact that Reform UK now has an MP, here are other things we learned.

I will be surprised if there are no more other MPs from other parties who don’t join Reform before the general election.

Tice accepted this forecast would not apply to an election in May, but very few people at Westminster now expect it that early. There are claims that up to nine Tory MPs are in talks to join the party. (See 10.24am.) Defections on this scale would be a huge blow to Rishi Sunak, but there is a long history of smaller parties making claims about potential defections that never actually happen.

When I find myself suspended for speaking my mind, and by the way speaking up on behalf of millions of people up and down the country who agree with me, that for me is unpalatable. It’s a shocker, if I’m honest.

I cannot be a part of an organisation which stifles free speech, and many of my colleagues in that place, in the Conservative party, do back back me on this privately.

Yet, after he lost the whip over his comments, Anderson put out a statement saying he accepted No 10 had no option but to do this. Anderson later said that his words had been “clumsy”, and he even wrote an article for the Daily Express accepting his use of the word “Islamist” had been problematic. Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the Commons, commended what he said in that article, telling MPs it represented Anderson’s more measured, “genuine view”. Today Anderson implied that it didn’t, and that he had no regrets about his original outburst.

It is no secret that I’ve been talking to my friends in Reform for a while. And Reform UK has offered me the chance to speak out in Parliament on behalf of millions of people up and down the country who feel that they’re not being listened to.

People will say that I’ve took a gamble. And I’m prepared to gamble on myself, as I know from my mailbag how many people in this country support Reform UK and what they have to say. And like millions of people up and down the country, all I want is my country back.

• Tice confirmed that immigration, “gender ideology” and net zero would be key election themes for Reform UK. (See 10.39am.) On migration, he claimed that mass immigration was making the country poorer – even though mainstream economists generally say the opposite.

• Tice claimed that the conduct of people on the pro-Palestinian marches was creating “genuine fear” amongst people in the Jewish community and he cited this as further evidence that Britiain was “broken”. He even claimed that many Jewish people were “thinking about leaving London to go back to Israel”. Mike Katz, chair of the Jewish Labour Movement, described his comments at antisemitic and wrong.

“Many [British Jews] are thinking about leaving London to go back to Israel?”

No @TiceRichard. Height of ignorance (& casually antisemitism); most British Jews were born here and like living here.

Stop using Jews as a political football. Get yourself educated and do one.

To be clear, in his scripted remarks Reform leader @TiceRichard, in his scripted remarks, said that Jews here are thinking of *going back* [my emphasis] to Israel.

Ignorant antisemitism, when he purports to support Jews who worry about growing antisemitism. We see you.

• Anderson defended his decision not to resign and trigger a byelection – even though in the past he backed a bill that said a byelection should happen if an MP defected to another party, as he has done. This is from the Mirror’s Ashley Cowburn.

Asked why he was not willing to trigger a byelection, Anderson said that it would be reckless to hold a byelection when there could be a byelection in May. He also said a byelection would be expensive.

My parents have been saying to me for weeks now, you cannot win, we can’t vote for you being in the Conservative party.

If my parents are saying that, what chance have I got?

Jessica Murray

Lee Anderson has represented the Nottinghamshire seat of Ashfield as a Conservative MP since 2019, having previously served as a Labour councillor on Ashfield district council.

Jason Zadrozny, the leader of the council who is vying for Anderson’s seat as an independent candidate at the next election (see 12pm), described his defection as the “worst kept secret in Ashfield”. Zadrozny said:

Ashfield people do not want the continuing soap opera of Lee Anderson. The fact that he is defecting to another ramshackle, right-wing political party is the worst kept secret in Ashfield.

People in Ashfield just want an MP to speak up for their concerns and deliver results for them. Living standards in Ashfield have plummeted since Anderson became the MP and these shenanigans do not help a single struggling family here. If Lee Anderson truly cared about local people, then today’s announcement would have been his resignation.

Labour says the defection of Lee Anderson shows that Rishi Sunak’s judgment is flawed and that the Conservative party is “too extreme to be led”. This is from Pat McFadden, Labour’s national campaign coordinator.

While the Conservatives are falling apart, Labour is focussed on turning the page on 14 year of Tory failure.

What does it say about Rishi Sunak’s judgement that he promoted Lee Anderson in the first place?

The truth is that the prime minister is too weak to lead a party too extreme to be led, and if the Tories got another five years it would all just get worse.