LONDON (Reuters) - A prominent former deputy chairman of Britain's governing Conservatives, who was suspended from the party over accusations of Islamophobia, on Monday defected to the small right-wing Reform UK party in a setback for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
The move by Lee Anderson, a former miner who has courted controversy with his outspoken views, comes months before a national election in which Reform is expected to draw votes away from the Conservatives and in doing so threaten Sunak's re-election bid.
Anderson's defection to Reform, which has Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage as its honorary president and backs populist causes such as tougher immigration laws, gives the party its first member of parliament.
It also represents a blow to Sunak, given Anderson was appointed as the Conservatives' deputy chairman last year to appeal to voters in former Labour Party-voting heartlands known as the "Red Wall" that backed the Conservatives at the last election.
"I want my country back ... We are allowing people into our country that will never integrate and adopt our British values," Anderson said at a press conference alongside Reform leader Richard Tice, who predicted more lawmakers would join Reform.
"Reform UK has offered me the chance to speak out in parliament on behalf of millions of people up and down the country, who feel that they're not being listened to."
Last month the Conservatives suspended Anderson after he refused to apologise for saying London's first Muslim mayor, Sadiq Khan, was under the control of Islamists.
While the Labour Party of opposition leader Keir Starmer is Sunak's biggest election challenge, Reform could win over some traditionally Conservative-leaning voters.
Last month Reform achieved its best result in one-off parliamentary contests known as by-elections, taking 13% of the vote in a constituency in central England, once considered a safe Conservative seat.
The party, founded in 2018 as the Brexit Party, has ruled out making any pre-election deals with the Conservatives.
Anderson quit his post as one of Conservative Party's deputy chairmen in January to vote for amendments to toughen up immigration legislation that would revive the government's plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.
The 57-year-old supports the return of capital punishment, wants asylum seekers to be immediately returned to their countries of origin, and earned the nickname "30p Lee" after claiming that decent meals could be made for that amount.
The row over Anderson's comments about London's mayor - for which he has repeatedly refused to apologise - comes at a sensitive time in British politics as the Israel-Hamas war exacerbates tensions in Jewish and Muslim communities that have spilled into parliament.