Who is the worst man in Britain? According to the Daily Mirror, it’s the 56-year-old former coal miner and Tory MP Lee Anderson, who clinched the award a year ago after criticising England’s footballers for ‘taking the knee’. How did Anderson, who this week was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Tory party, respond to the accolade? ‘I immediately rang my parents to thank them for all their support. It’s the first time anyone from my family has been voted the worst man in Britain, so I tried to win it two years on the trot.’
Since his election in December 2019, Anderson has emerged as the pugnacious ambassador for the Red Wall intake of Conservative MPs. He is, like his Ashfield constituency, a Tory convert, having served as a Labour councillor until a year before his election. While many well-heeled Tories shy away from cost-of-living issues, Anderson relishes the debate, arguing that anyone earning over £30,000 but using food banks ‘must have a budgeting problem’.
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