Lee Anderson (British politician)

Lee Anderson MP
Official portrait, 2019
Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party
In office 7 February 2023 – 16 January 2024
Leader	Rishi Sunak
Preceded by	Matt Vickers
Succeeded by	James Daly
Member of Parliament for Ashfield
Incumbent
Assumed office 12 December 2019
Preceded by	Gloria De Piero
Majority	5,733 (11.7%)
Personal details
Born	(1967-01-06) 6 January 1967 (age 57) Ashfield, England
Political party	Reform UK (2024–present)
Other political affiliations	Labour (1983–2018) Conservative (2018–2024)
Spouse	Sinead Anderson
Children	2

Lee Anderson (born 6 January 1967) is a British politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashfield since 2019. Elected as a member of the Conservative Party, he defected to Reform UK in March 2024 after having the whip suspended. He is Reform UK's first and only MP.

Anderson was a Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party under Rishi Sunak from February 2023 until January 2024 when he resigned to vote against the government on an amendment relating to the Rwanda asylum plan; he ultimately abstained after he stated he was taunted by Labour Party MPs in the No lobby.^[1] In February 2024, he had the Conservative whip suspended after refusing to apologise for stating that "Islamists" had "got control" of Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and Leader of the Opposition Keir Starmer.

Before his parliamentary career, Anderson was a coal miner and worked for a Citizens Advice Bureau. He was elected as a Labour Party councillor in Ashfield in 2015. Suspended by Labour, he defected to the Conservative Party in 2018 and was a Conservative councillor in Mansfield from 2019 to 2021, also serving as an MP for much of this time.