Portrait
United Kingdom: Lee Anderson, a vice-president who clashes with the Conservative party
Screenshot of Lee Anderson's website.
© www.leeanderson.org.uk
Text by: Marie Boëda
5 mins
How did this man from the working world and fan of shock phrases manage to become number 2 of a party in search of stability and sobriety after the hasty departure of Prime Minister Liz Truss last October?
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From our correspondent in London,
"
From the mine to Parliament
", Lee Anderson describes his atypical journey with pride.
Portraits, interviews, forums... the new vice-president of the conservative party appears daily in the newspapers.
Far from being unanimous, this new ally speaks to an electorate distant from the
British Prime Minister, the millionaire and ex-banker Rishi Sunak
.
An asset therefore for the latter who saw himself, all the same, last week forced to announce that he did not support a return to the death penalty.
In question, an interview with its new vice-president, published by the newspaper
the
Spectator
and praising the sentence abolished for 58 years.
“
No one has ever committed a crime after being executed.
You know that, don't you?
100% success rate
”, had launched Lee Anderson.
The new number 2 of the Conservative Party, 56, comes from a mining area in the north of England.
Like his father, he works in a coal mine in the Ashfields area.
After ten years spent underground, he then gave legal and financial advice, before working in homes for homeless young people.
Then in 2015, he joined Labor as a councilor in his region, in Mansfield.
Those he now calls “
crazy people
” suspended him from his job for four months after he rented a backhoe and placed concrete blocks in a parking lot to prevent “travellers” from camping illegally.
In 2018, Labor changed sides and joined the Conservatives.
He gets closer to Boris Johnson, whom he compares to a member of his family.
He campaigned for Brexit and was elected MP for the ruling party in his region in 2019. He is the living embodiment of the political earthquake which toppled the "red wall" in the north of England, transforming Labor seats into Tories historically safe.
Deluge of criticism
Since then, the outspoken man knows how to attract attention and does not hesitate to display his opinions.
His media outings irritate more than one, even in his own camp.
Like when he criticizes nurses who go to food banks.
The latter do not know how to “
manage
” their finances, he explains: “
We have generation after generation who cannot cook properly, they cannot cook a meal from scratch, they cannot make a budget
” .
He then invites the other deputies to come and witness a “
brilliant project
”: in his constituency, those who come to a food bank are forced to “
enroll in a budgeting and cooking course
”.
"
We show them how to cook cheap, nutritious meals on a budget.
We can cook a meal for around 30p a day
,” says the Nottinghamshire MP, renamed “30p Lee” by the press.
►
To read also: European of the week – Rishi Sunak, the banker who wants to bring calm to 10 Downing Street
Faced with the deluge of criticism, the one who did not have access to large private schools like most of his colleagues in Parliament defends himself by recalling his origins: “
I was a single parent for 17 years with two boys.
I know what it's like to put your last fiver in the gas meter, to have to sell your car because you can't afford it.
I know what it's like to struggle.
So I won't take any lessons from anyone about being in a difficult situation
."
“
The more my detractors criticize me, the more I know that I do and say the right things
,
”
he reassures himself.
In just over three years in the House of Commons, the Tory has called for '
troublesome tenants
' to be housed in tents and working as potato pickers.
He refused to look at Gareth Southgate's England team as they knelt in support of the fight against racism.
He has also been investigated over allegations of anti-Semitism in connection with a Facebook group where conspiracy theories thrive.
The result was never made public, but the MP has since voluntarily participated in training sessions on recognizing hatred of Jews.
Seduce a more popular electorate
Recently, he made it known that he supported the policy of the Minister of the Interior: to toughen the tone to fight against illegal immigration.
Because he is convinced that it is “
problem number 1 for voters
”.
He proposed that Royal Navy frigates bring the migrants back to Calais.
He welcomes the opening of a new coal mine granted by Rishi Sunak, “
despite all the nonsense spouted by environmentalists
”.
This divisive appointment will allow the Prime Minister to seduce a more popular electorate, to which the resident of Downing Street, the richest in British history, does not speak.
And this, a year before the general election and while the polls show the party in power losing out against Labour.
Part of Anderson's role as vice president will be to take to the airwaves to voice support for the government's agenda.
This Tuesday, in the
Mirror
, he flattered some of the voters on the hard right by assuring that the Tories are likely to put a “
mixture of culture wars and debate on transgenders
” at the heart of their electoral offer.
But in an attack on his Prime Minister, he recalls that four years ago the Tories won thanks to ingredients that are now gone: Boris Johnson, Brexit and antipathy towards Jeremy Corbyn (former Labor leader).
The party will have to “
think about something else
”
,
he concludes.
He who a week before being appointed compared the government to “
the Titanic orchestra, playing the same tune and ignoring the obvious
”.
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