Lee Anderson slaps down Labour for suggesting Nigel Farage could defect to them
Sir Keir Starmer's spokesman refused to rule out accepting Nigel Farage into the Labour Party after today's shock Tory MP defection.
Nigel Farage predicts there will be a summer general election
Lee Anderson has poured cold water on Labour’s refusal to rule out allowing Nigel Farage to join Sir Keir Starmer’s party.
The absurd proposition emerged after PMQs, when Sir Keir championed his second Tory MP defection in two weeks.
Natalie Elphicke switched sides in the Commons despite being firmly on the right of the Conservative Party on immigration, the economy and culture war issues.
Pressed about whether there is a limit on who Labour would accept joining their party, Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman rejected that Ms Elphicke’s defection is a “step too far”.
Asked if Labour expect any further defections, he said “you’ll have to wait and see on that”.
Asked if there’s any line the party wouldn’t cross, and whether Mr Farage would be allowed to join Labour, the spokesman responded: “Of course, we have conversations with all sorts of people who talk to us about wanting to come and support the party in various different ways.”
He refused to say whether Labour has turned away any Tory MPs yet.
Responding to the reports, Reform UK’s sole MP Lee Anderson slapped down the ludicrous suggestion.
Mr Anderson tweeted: “Let me save you the trouble: I can rule it out right now.”
Labour’s comments about Mr Farage weren’t the first time he was courted by one of the two main parties today.
This morning senior Tory MP Robert Jenrick said the Reform UK President would be “welcome” to return to his former party.
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Speaking on LBC, the Tory leadership contender said he “would not oppose Mr Farage coming back into the party”, but conceded it’s “not our priority”.
“He’s associated with a different political party today, what we should be doing is tackling the issues that the public care about and which are leading some former Conservative voters to look elsewhere.
“As I say, legal migration seems to be absolutely top of the list and I believe that can be improved in the months ahead.”
Earlier this week, allies of Boris Johnson and Mr Farage were said to have been in discussion about how to realign the right after the General Election.
A Sunday newspaper claimed Mr Farage may fight to win Clacton for Reform, while Mr Johnson could return to parliament in a by-election.
The former premier would then “woo” Mr Farage to persuade him to return to the Tories.
However these claims were denied by all sides, with Richard Tice arguing Boris Johnson’s politics are “quite a long way apart” from Reform’s.
