Lee Anderson has revealed he did not follow through with his revolt against Rishi Sunak and his Rwanda asylum plan because Labour MPs were “giggling and laughing and taking the mick”.
Anderson helped undermine the prime minister’s authority on Tuesday when he resigned as Tory deputy chairmen in order to back rebel amendments to Sunak’s Safety of Rwanda Bill.
But 24 hours later, Anderson was conspicuous in his absence from the list of disaffected Conservative MPs who actually voted against the legislation at the crunch third reading stage in the House of Commons.
The rebellion that was billed as being a threat to Sunak’s premiership fizzled out – just 11 Tories voting against the bill, which passed with a comfortable majority of 44.
Speaking to GB News, Anderson explained that he did not vote – or “abstained” – because of the response from Labour MPs as members voted.
He said: “I was going to vote ‘no’. I went into the ‘no’ lobby to vote ‘no’ because I couldn’t see how I could support the bill after backing all the amendments. I spent about two or three minutes with a colleague in there.
“The Labour lot was all giggling and laughing and taking the mick, and I couldn’t do it. In my heart of hearts, I could not vote ‘no’.
“So I walked out and come out. So I’ve abstained. I wanted to vote ‘no’, but when I saw that lot in there laughing, there’s no way I could support them above the party that’s given me a political home.”
Before his election to parliament in 2019, Anderson was a Labour councillor in Ashfield before he defected to the Conservative Party and went on to serve as a Tory councillor in Mansfield.
Earlier this week, Anderson was among around 60 MPs who defied the Tory whip to back amendments aimed at toughening up the legislation to allow ministers to ignore European court rulings and make it more difficult for asylum seekers to appeal against deportation.
However, just 11 of them voted against the entire bill by Tuesday. They included former cabinet ministers Suella Braverman and Simon Clarke.
Brendan Clarke-Smith, who like Anderson resigned as Tory deputy chairmen to back the rebel amendments, also did not vote against the bill.