Ashfield MP Lee Anderson named as Conservative party deputy chair after reshuffle

A controversial Nottinghamshire MP has been named as the Conservative party deputy chairman after the prime minister carried out a mini reshuffle.

He'll serve under Greg Hands, a former trade minister who replaces Stratford-on-Avon MP Nadhim Zahawi, who was sacked following allegations he breached the ministerial code.

Lee Anderson, who has represented Ashfield since 2019, has made a number of controversial comments since his election.

Notably, he had a public spat with food poverty campaigner Jack Munroe, after suggesting there was "no massive need" for food banks in the UK.

He went on: "We've got generation after generation who cannot cook properly, they can't cook a meal from scratch, they cannot budget."

Anderson later picked up the nickname '30p Lee' from critics after claiming that meals could be made for as little as thirty pence.

He spoke about a food bank in his constituency during the same Commons debate, saying, "And what we do in the food bank, we show them how to cook cheap and nutritious meals on a budget. We can make a meal for about 30 pence a day. And this is cooking from scratch."

Anderson used to be a member of the Labour party, and served as a local councillor before defecting to the Tories in 2018.

After his appointment, he retweeted a Conservative party tweet and commented: "Yes it's true. From the Pits to Parliament. Feeling very proud."

Amid a reshuffle Rishi Sunak created three new departments and made over a dozen ministerial and junior ministerial appointments.

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