Former Tory deputy party chairman and now Reform UK MP Lee Anderson has insisted his party will win seats at a general election following success in the local elections on Thursday.
His new party narrowly lost out on second place during the Blackpool by-election by only 117 votes.
Mr Anderson – who defected in March – told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that his party’s vote is “going up and up and up” and “the Tory vote is going down and down and down”.
He praised his party for getting nearly 17 per cent of the vote share in Blackpool” as “tremendous”, adding: “That’s above our polling nationally.”
Mr Anderson’s comments come as the party’s vote share in Blackpool marks a considerable narrowing of the lead between the Tories and the right-wing challenger party, which is likely to irk some Conservative MPs.
However, Reform is still underperforming when compared to similar tests by Ukip in previous parliaments – leading some commentators to suggest that its vote share says more about a collapse in Tory support than a particularly strong campaign from the party.
The former Labour councillor turned Tory MP turned Reform MP touted the successes of his new party, telling R4 presenter Nick Robinson: “Up and down the country we did well. In Sunderland, we beat the Tories in 16 out of 25 seats there and we did very, very well in the Lincolnshire Police and Crime Commissioner elections.”
Mr Anderson’s insistence that his party will win seats at a general election has been widely disputed by pollsters who have suggested that although Reform may nibble away at the Conservative voteshare, they are not yet making the kind of necessary gains to win an entire constituency.
Many have questioned whether a high profile candidacy – such as Nigel Farage – could propel the party to victory in at least one seat. Thus far, Mr Farage has remained coy about whether or not he would stand for Reform, but has told reporters he plans to give an update within the next few weeks.
Mr Robinson put it to Mr Anderson that it would be “bizarre” for Mr Farage not to run now “because you’ve just told us you’re going to win seats”.
An audibly annoyed Mr Anderson responded: “Have you spoken to Nigel Farage, Nick?”, to which Mr Robinson responded: “No, I’m asking you about it”.
Mr Anderson replied: “Well I can think of lots of reasons why lots of people wouldn’t run for parliament. Why don’t you run for parliament?”
After some heated back and forth, Mr Anderson conceded that Mr Farage is still making up his mind: “Nigel has not ruled it out, Nick. He said he’s going to make his mind up in the very, very near future. It’s up to him whether or not he wants to be a member of parliament.”
