Lee Anderson - MP for Ashfield / Chief Whip | Reform Watch
Profile and accountability tracker for Lee Anderson, MP for Ashfield / Chief Whip. Reform UK.
Role: MP for Ashfield / Chief Whip
Party: Reform UK
Recorded incidents (showing 1-9 of 9)
Lee Anderson describes House of Lords as the most expensive care home in Europe
Category: inflammatory language
Lee Anderson (mp, East Midlands) said in broadcast comments that Reform was being shunned by Labour and that the uniparty system was trying to block the party. He described the House of Lords as the most expensive care home in Europe. He presented the remarks as evidence that Reform is denied a fair hearing by establishment forces, contributing to a grievance narrative. Lee Anderson remains MP for East Midlands.
Lee Anderson backs referendum on reinstating the death penalty
Category: inflammatory language
Lee Anderson said Britain should hold a referendum on reinstating the death penalty and that he believed voters would support bringing back capital punishment. He presented the proposal as a response to what he described as Parliament being out of touch and acknowledged the issue would be very divisive. Reform leader Nigel Farage disagreed, saying he opposed the death penalty on grounds including the risk of wrongful executions. There has been no reported party sanction and Anderson remains a Reform UK MP; legal barriers such as the European Convention on Human Rights would also prevent immediate reintroduction of capital punishment in the UK.
Lee Anderson called for eviction of social tenants over untidy gardens
Category: xenophobia
Lee Anderson (mp, East Midlands) said social housing tenants should be required to keep their homes and gardens maintained or face eviction, speaking at a Reform UK press conference in London. He recalled earlier council-housing rules requiring inspections and said tenants would previously be given warnings before being removed if they did not meet minimum standards. The comments formed part of Reform UK’s wider social housing proposals, which included giving priority to young British workers, veterans and married couples and which the party says would include evicting foreign nationals from social homes; Richard Tice, the party’s deputy leader, set out plans for building affordable homes at the event. Housing charity Shelter said strict allocation rules would cause more homelessness and its chief executive Sarah Elliot criticised the policies; Lee Anderson remains chairman of Reform UK and no party disciplinary action is reported in relation to these remarks.
Lee Anderson claims Meloni–Badenoch story was suppressed
Category: factual inaccuracy
Lee Anderson, the MP for the East Midlands, wrote to a national newspaper alleging that a story about Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni and Kemi Badenoch had been deliberately suppressed and had disappeared, suggesting media censorship. He repeated the suggestion in public commentary. The allegation followed an earlier retraction of an original claim that Meloni had advised Badenoch against a deal with Reform. There was no public evidence presented to support Anderson's assertion of deliberate suppression, and the matter did not result in any reported party disciplinary action.
Lee Anderson defends prioritising British-born people for social housing
Category: xenophobia
Lee Anderson (mp, East Midlands) defended a Reform UK policy to prioritise British-born people for social housing in public remarks. He said council housing should be a privilege and that British-born workers under 35 should be placed ahead of foreign nationals and asylum seekers in housing allocation. The remarks were presented as putting British people first and Anderson said the party would make no apology for the policy. Critics warned the plan risked harming vulnerable families and escalating division; there is no record in the source of any party disciplinary action or formal challenge to his comments.
Lee Anderson calls protesters 'The Great Unwashed' and wagers many are on PIP
Category: discriminatory remark
In a post on X in late January 2026, Reform UK MP and the party's welfare spokesman Lee Anderson responded to a noisy protest outside a restaurant in Newcastle where Nigel Farage was dining, writing "The Great Unwashed. I’d wager half of them at least are on PIP." The comment was posted publicly on his X account while discussing the incident involving protesters. Anderson has served as Reform UK’s spokesman on welfare since September 2025. The remark targets disability benefit claimants and was made shortly before the Gorton and Denton by-election on 26 February 2026, where 10,036 people are recorded as receiving PIP. Reform’s candidate in that by-election, Matt Goodwin, has previously posted that many sickness benefit claimants are not genuinely sick.
Lee Anderson ridicules Hope Not Hate job advert with demeaning remarks
Category: discriminatory remark
On 2026-01-25 Lee Anderson, Reform UK's Chief Whip, mocked a Hope Not Hate job advertisement for a researcher to monitor Reform UK. He used wording including "Ex-benefits scrounger with purple hair, multiple piercings and a hatred of everything British required", "Tell daily lies about the British people" and "Keep taking the tablets. We particularly welcome applications from lunatics." The comments referred directly to the charity's advert for a researcher to monitor the party and used language aimed at benefit recipients and people with mental health conditions. Anderson remains Reform UK's Chief Whip.
Lee Anderson vows Reform will end small boats 'invasion' once and for all
Category: xenophobia
On 14 November 2025, Reform UK MP Lee Anderson vowed that a Reform government would "march into the Home Office" and make what he called the "invasion" of Britain "a problem of the past". He criticised Labour for, in his words, incentivising illegal migration with "free hotels, free clothes, and warm meals" and called for "secure borders and mass deportations". The comments were made in response to Home Office figures on a UK-France returns scheme, which the Home Secretary said had seen 113 people deported and 84 returned via legal routes, while more than 8,000 people have arrived by small boats since the first return. Labour MP Shabana Mahmood hailed the deportations as a "milestone" and said the scheme was working, pledging to remove those who entered illegally; Anderson remains a Reform UK MP.
Lee Anderson said people feel threatened by other religions
Category: hate speech
Lee Anderson (mp, East Midlands) said at his party's conference in Birmingham that many people in the UK feel threatened by other religions, linking that anxiety to changing demographics, flags and a revival of Christian identity. He made the remarks while speaking on a Centre for Social Justice panel about young men, religion and social change, and said he understood why people were returning to church and that Christianity should be promoted. The comments came alongside other conference remarks about celebrating the country's Judeo-Christian heritage by Reform party figures, and Anderson also used the event to criticise the Online Safety Act. Anderson said he did not personally believe in God but supported promoting Christianity; there is no record in the source of any party disciplinary response or sanction relating to these remarks.