Lee Anderson has said he wants his job as deputy chairman of the Conservative Party back — just a week after resigning to rebel against Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda plan.
The right-wing Tory quit his post on January 16 in order to vote for amendments aimed at toughening up the prime minister’s flagship legislation.
In his resignation letter, Anderson said it was “important in terms of credibility” that he took the stance he did.
He then abstained on the Safety of Rwanda Bill, which the prime minister says will help to stop small boats carrying asylum seekers across the Channel.
Anderson later claimed he planned to vote against it but changed his mind after Labour MPs laughed at him.
But in a humiliating U-turn, Anderson told the Daily Telegraph he should have “voted for” the bill - and that he wants his old job back.
“I thought that I probably should have voted for it because if the Bill would have been killed on that night, there was nothing else, there was no Plan B,” he said.
“There was nothing else. It was either vote for a Bill that might succeed or vote against a Bill and have nothing.”
A spokeswoman for the prime minister refused to rule out the possibility of Anderson becoming deputy chairman again.
She said: “We’ve got a lot of time for Lee. He made clear he had concerns but he really supports getting this deterrent up and running.”
It comes as Sunak faces a new plot to oust him as Tory leader and prime minister.
On Tuesday evening former cabinet minister Simon Clarke warned the Tories would be “massacred” at the next election unless they chose a new leader.
Defending the prime minister in the same interview in which he requested his job back, Anderson said the party’s “only chance to win the next election is by keeping Rishi in No 10”.
During PMQs, Labour leader Keir Starmer mocked Sunak for the Tories “fighting each other to death” as the general election loomed.