One Tory MP says it is possible ‘one or two’ other colleagues might also defect to join former Conservative MP and ex-deputy chair

The former deputy chair of the Conservative party, Lee Anderson, has defected to Reform UK, said the party’s leader, Richard Tice.

Anderson’s defection to the rightwing populist party was announced by Tice at a central London press conference on Monday.

Anderson lost the Tory whip after claiming Islamists had “got control” of Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, and that he had “given our capital city away to his mates”.

Anderson, whose constituency is Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, becomes the only MP to sit for Reform, which grew out of the Brexit party after the 2016 referendum and has links to Nigel Farage.