Lee Anderson (British politician)

Lee Anderson (born 6 January 1967) is a British Conservative politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashfield since 2019. He was a Labour councillor in Ashfield, before defecting to the Conservative Party and becoming a councillor in Mansfield.

Lee Anderson

MP
Anderson in 2019
Member of Parliament
for Ashfield
Assumed office
12 December 2019
Preceded byGloria De Piero
Majority5,733 (11.7%)
Personal details
Born (1967-01-06) 6 January 1967
NationalityBritish
Political partyConservative (from March 2018)
Other political
affiliations		Labour (Until March 2018)
Spouse(s)Sinead[1]
Children2
EducationAshfield School[2]
OccupationPolitician
Websitewww.leeanderson.org.uk

Early life

Anderson was born on 6 January 1967 in the Ashfield area, and attended John Davies Primary School and Ashfield School. He comes from a coal mining family.[1]

Career

After school, Anderson briefly studied Shipping Management at Nottingham Technical College, before becoming a coal miner. He was a long-time Labour Party member and served as a councillor in the Huthwaite and Brierly ward of Ashfield where he was elected in 2015.[3] Anderson also worked as office manager for the Ashfield Labour MP at the time, Gloria De Piero, having campaigned alongside her for the 2015 and 2017 UK general elections. Anderson was a vocal Brexiteer having supported the Vote Leave campaign in the 2016 EU Referendum. He defected to the Conservatives in March 2018,[4] later being elected as the Conservative councillor for the Oakham ward in Mansfield, a neighbouring district, following the May 2019 local elections.

While serving as a Labour councillor on Ashfield Council in 2018, he was suspended by the party locally for allegedly dumping boulders to block access to a local camp site. He was later presented with a community protection order over the action and instructed to remove the boulders.[5]

In July 2019, he was selected as the Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for Ashfield.[6] He was elected as a Conservative MP in the 2019 general election, succeeding his former boss, Gloria De Piero, who stood down before the election.[7] Anderson won with a majority of 5,733 votes, with the Ashfield Independent Party candidate, Jason Zadrozny coming in second place and Labour dropping to third place. This was the first time that the Conservatives had won the seat since the 1977 by-election.

During the 2019 general election campaign, in the wake of a murder on the Carsic council estate in his constituency, Anderson said that certain "nuisance" council tenants were "making people's lives a complete misery". He said: "Let's have [the tenants] in the field, picking potatoes or any other seasonal vegetables, back in the tent, cold shower, lights out, six o'clock, same again the next day."[8] He was criticised by the Labour Party, who said the idea amounted to "forced labour camps".[8]

Anderson was also caught setting up a staged door-knock encounter with a friend whilst being filmed by Michael Crick. Prior to the staged visit, Anderson told the man he arranged to meet to "make out you know who I am, that you know I'm the candidate but not that you are a friend".[9] Anderson justified his actions by stating that he "had been trying to make sure that somebody was in" before apologising some weeks later.[10]

Anderson was one of three Conservative Party candidates investigated by the party over claims of anti-Semitism during the election campaign.[11] The investigation was opened on the grounds that he was an active member of a Facebook group in which other members supported Tommy Robinson and promoted George Soros conspiracy theories.[12][13] Whilst under investigation, he was confronted by the head of the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism over a letter he co-signed which was published by the Daily Telegraph that employed the phrase Cultural Marxism, seen by some as an antisemitic conspiracy theory.[14]

References
  1. "About Lee Anderson". Lee Anderson.
  2. Hill, Henry (21 January 2020). "Boris' Boys and Girls: The Conservative Commons Intake of 2019". Conservative Home. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
  3. "District Ward Results 2015". Ashfield District Council. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  4. "Nottinghamshire Labour councillors quit to join Tories". BBC. BBC News. 20 March 2018. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  5. "Councillor suspended by Ashfield Labour Group". www.chad.co.uk.
  6. Andrews, Danielle. "Mansfield councillor aims to become Ashfield's MP". Chad. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  7. Dingwall, Ed (20 July 2019). "Ashfield MP Gloria De Piero to stand down before next General Election". Chad. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  8. "'Nuisance' council tenants 'should live in tents' says Ashfield Tory candidate". BBC News. 19 November 2019. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  9. "Ashfield's Conservative candidate Lee Anderson caught setting up door-knock with friendly voter". www.chad.co.uk. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
  10. "Ashfield candidate faces criticism over 'fake door knock'". BBC News. 26 November 2019.
  11. "General election 2019: Tories probe candidates over anti-Semitism claims". BBC News. 7 December 2019. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  12. Proctor, Kate (7 December 2019). "Tories investigate three candidates over alleged antisemitism". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  13. Mendel, Jack (13 December 2019). "Two Tories win seats despite investigations over antisemitism". Jewish News. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  14. Tory MPs and peers warned over use of the term 'cultural Marxism', The Jewish Chronicle. 24 November 2020
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Gloria De Piero		 Member of Parliament
for Ashfield
2019–present		 Incumbent
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