Most Tories aren't welcome in Reform, says Lee Anderson
The Reform chief whip and MP for Ashfield said most of the Tory parliamentary party would only want to cross the floor to 'save their jobs'.
It comes after Sir Jake Berry and David Jones this week became the first two former Cabinet ministers to defect to Reform from the Tories.
Mr Anderson entered the Commons as a Tory MP in 2019 but was suspended in February 2024 amid a row over comments he made about Sir Sadiq Khan, the Labour Mayor of London.
He went on to join Reform the following month, becoming their first representative in the House of Commons.
Nigel Farage's party has since surged in the polls, and currently leads the Tories by an average of almost 10 points, while also enjoying a narrow lead over Labour.
In an interview with The Telegraph's politics newsletter, Mr Anderson was asked how many of the current 120 MPs Reform would be willing to welcome.
'Most of the best ones lost their seats'
He replied: 'Not many, because they'd just be coming to save their jobs. But let me tell you about the makeup of the Tory Party at the moment.
'Most of the best ones lost their seats, a lot of my good friends lost their seats in the Red Wall. You've got 120, you've got 30 wets, you've got 30 who would consider aligning with our politics.
'And the [others] haven't got a clue who they are, they just want to be MPs. So I think they're toast, mate. They don't know what they stand for.'
Announcing his defection on Wednesday night, Sir Jake suggested the Tories had governed no better than Labour and accused both parties of having wrecked the country.
Mr Anderson also accepted there would be 'bumps in the road' for Reform after James McMurdock announced over the weekend he had permanently quit the party.
The MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock said he had decided to stay on in the Commons as an independent MP following allegations surrounding his business dealings during the pandemic.
Despondency about Tory prospects
Reform is understood to also be considering whether to welcome Jonathan Gullis, a former Tory minister.
No formal conversations between the party and Mr Gullis have taken place so far, but The Telegraph understands he is sympathetic to its positions on a number of issues.
On Wednesday night, Mr Gullis told GB News he could 'understand' why Sir Jake had left the Conservatives and said he was more despondent than ever about Tory prospects.
He has previously called for Mr Farage to receive a peerage and suggested last year that Reform was attempting to convince him to cross the floor.
'The trajectory is up'
Pointing to Reform's success at May's local elections, in which it won control of 10 councils and two mayoralties, Mr Anderson said: 'We're only going one way, the trajectory is up.
'We're a growing party, we're a startup party, we're learning. There's bumps in the road, there's going to be casualties on the path to victory in 2029.
'And what we're doing at the moment is we have a weekly meeting with our chairman, with Nigel, with the other MPs. We're developing policy behind closed doors, and that will be released as the election gets nearer and nearer.'
Mr Anderson said he had been 'mobbed' by 15 teenagers from Birmingham who were on a visit to the Houses of Parliament early this week, and said every single one had been a Reform supporter.
He added: 'The young people in this country are rebelling. They've had enough, they've seen what's happening to this country and they're thinking they've had enough.'
' They love Nigel Farage, he has a huge following on TikTok, on his social media. They want something different.'
Asked whether he would back a change to a proportional voting system, a commitment made in the Reform manifesto last year, Mr Anderson said he was in two minds on the issue.
Speaking during a general election campaign event, Mr Farage declared he wanted to see the first past the post voting system scrapped and that there would be huge public support for such a move.
PR 'a much fairer system'
But Mr Anderson said: 'It is party policy. I'm mixed on this personally, I mean it's up for debate, we're a democratic party. I suppose we'll come to a decision on this. Look, I see the benefits of PR [proportional representation]. It's a much fairer system, [it would have won us] a lot more MPs.
'But you know what? We also have to think about it very, very carefully, if we had PR in place, we've got [Jeremy] Corbyn now and Zarah Sultana thinking about forming a political party with the Gaza independents probably sat behind him, joining as well.
'That would mean that old Jezza, he'd probably get 60 or 70 MPs as well. And you know what? That's a dangerous place to be, and I think personally to have 60 or 70 of them in the chamber, maybe having the balance of power in some votes, that scares me a little bit. So I think we have to be very, very careful.'
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