The rise (and fall?) of Lee Anderson

It has taken only three years for Lee Anderson to rise from fledgling Tory MP to deputy chairman of his party. It’s a remarkable achievement for a man who, until 2018, was a Labour politician. Since his election, Anderson has frequently hit the headlines – not least after an interview in The Spectator earlier this month in which he backed the death penalty. ‘100 per cent effective,’ he said of the ultimate punishment. For that intervention, Anderson was promptly lambasted and denounced as ‘thick’ and monstrous – but also won plenty of support. It’s clear Anderson is a politician loved and loathed in equal measure. But it’s difficult to understand him without finding out about the town he came from. 

Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, the seat Anderson represents, is a staunch working-class community. Once full of coal mines and factories, the area – which I grew up in and where all of my family still live – sits in the heart of the Red Wall.