Photo: Twitter
Look, if you’re going to jump in an open-top bus and tour your local area, it’s probably worth checking just how liked you are by your constituents. Sadly for Lee Anderson, it doesn’t exactly look like he’s Mr. Popular in Ashfield.
The MP for the area, who defected from the Conservatives to Reform earlier this week, was joined by party leader Richard Tice for a jaunt through north Nottinghamshire. After joining his third party in six years, ’30p Lee’ was keen to gauge the public mood.
Although he was flanked by a number of campaign personnel and supporters, not everyone was happy to see Mr. Anderson. When the bus reached Sutton-in-Ashfield, he was confronted by an enraged member of the public.
In a video shared to Twitter by LBC, the local resident can be seen shouting obscenities at the high-profile politician. She didn’t detail her grievances, but the vocal citizen did get the chance to call Lee Anderson a ‘f*****g w****r’ in the town square.
The woman was then confronted by a handful of Anderson’s supporters – one of whom had to be told to get his hands off her. She dared the man to ‘touch her again’ – at which point, he wisely backed away.
At the first stop, in Selston, Lee Anderson was asked if more Tory MPs would follow him. He was candid in his response, encouraging his former colleagues to ‘wrestle with their conscience’ before making such a decision:
“Will others defect? That’s up to them. I’m not putting pressure on anybody. They’ve got to wrestle with their own conscience on that one and do what they think is right by themselves.”
“I’ve still got friends [in the Conservative Party]. You don’t lose your friends overnight – not your real friends anyway. Successive governments have tried to give our country away over the years. I love this country and I love you lot.” | Lee Anderson
