Lee Anderson: Talk of a leadership election is absolute NONSENSE

Lee Anderson: Talk of a leadership election is absolute NONSENSE
Georgia Pearce

By Georgia Pearce


Published: 16/11/2023

- 08:23

The Conservative Party’s Deputy Chairman Lee Anderson has quashed rumours that he is thinking of resigning and said that talk of a leadership election is ‘absolute nonsense.’

Speaking to Patrick Christys on GB News, he said: "The Prime Minister is backing the sentiment of what I said.

“I spoke to Rishi tonight: we are frustrated, we’re fed up. I’ve been marched up the hill a few times on this issue. This is a bit of a kick in the teeth but every cloud has a silver lining.

“The people in Ashfield, the people in this country, are fed up to the back teeth of these illegal migrants coming over to this country, taking the mick. They’re stopping in hotels, they’re costing us an absolute fortune and I’ve always said we should send them back the same day.

“If we did that, they’d stop coming.

“I’ve never changed my mind on this from day one. They should be sent back the same day, like they do in Australia where they turn them around.

“When you go to bed at night you will lock your back door and put your alarm on. You do that for a couple of reasons: you don’t want intruders coming in, you don’t want your house broken into and you want to be safe.

“We should do the same with our borders. It’s as simple as that.

“I’d like [the first flight to Rwanda] to go now: I’d be waving them off from the runway with my union flag saying ‘you break into this country, you come here illegally, you throw your passports away, we don’t want you – get on that flight.”

Addressing the rumours that he might resign, he told Patrick Christys:

“Let me just tell you now, here on GB News, there’s no way there’s going to be a leadership contest. We don’t need a leadership contest, we need to let Rishi crack on with the job.

“There’s one letter gone in and this is the thing. If there was a leadership election Rishi would win, hands down.

“The membership wouldn’t get a vote. You’ve got to get over a certain tipping point to get to the last two. He would win. Simple as that.

“Talk of a leadership election at this stage is absolute nonsense. It’s just playing right into the Labour Party’s hands.

“I’ve never resigned from anything in my life. I’m not for turning. My role is a political role. I speak to members every single week up and down the country; I’ve got my finger on the political pulse of the membership.

“They’re frustrated, the country’s frustrated but we’ve seen Labour tonight in the chamber and we’ve heard them rattling on this afternoon – they ain’t going to solve this problem.

“I know people are frustrated – I’m frustrated – people like Bill Cash, he’s frustrated.

“But the only party that can sort this out is the Conservative Party.”

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