'The fox is in the hen house': Lee Anderson and Nigel Farage lead group of five Reform MPs

By David Wilcock, Deputy Political Editor For Mailonline 09:55 09 Jul 2024, updated 15:41 09 Jul 2024

Tory turncoat Lee Anderson warned 'the fox is in the hen house' as he arrived back in Parliament alongside Nigel Farage at the head of a cabal of Reform MPs.

The happy quintet of right-wingers posed for cameras in Westminster after arriving for the start of the new term after their election breakthrough.

And the group, which includes three millionaire businessman, immediately set their sights on trying to upset the establishment.  

It came as Tory rightwinger Suella Braverman warned that Reform poses an 'existential threat' to the defeated Conservatives. 

She used a speech to the Popular Conservatism conference that it would be a 'fundamental error' to attack Reform  and should instead try to win back 'lifelong' Tories' who defected.

Speaking at a PopCon (Popular Conservatism) gathering, she said: 'We did not do what we promised to do (at the election) .... 

'We have had the luxury of a monopoly (on the right of British politics) but no longer, and that is why Reform is an existential threat to our party.' 

She said the Conservative Party should bid to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and axe the Human Rights Act, and added: "We've never been unequivocal about this pressing cause of the problem."

Mr Farage joked that arriving in Parliament reminded him of his first day at his posh public school today as he led a quintet of Reform MPs into the Commons.

He posed with the rest of the 'Reform Five' in Parliament this morning after becoming an MP last week at the eighth attempt.

And he immediately set his sights on winning over Labour voters, citing warnings to Keir Starmer from Sir Tony Blair that the PM needs to have a 'plan to control immigration' to ward off Reform.

Mr Farage told reporters he had been reminded of Dulwich College, the £55,000-per-year institution in south London, as he made his way to Westminster from his home in Kent.

And he joked that they would be relying on Lee Anderson, the former Conservative Party chairman turned Reform MP, to help them get around the corridors of power. He was re-elected in Ashfield last week after being elected as a Tory in 2019.

'On the way in this morning I drove past my old school. I remembered September 1974 walking into this great big historic place and thinking 'gosh'. 

'Well, I'm a few years older now, there are five of us. Luckily Lee knows where we are going, otherwise we would be completely and utterly lost. If anything goes wrong today it is down to Lee Anderson.'

It comes as Tory rightwingers continue to flirt with closer ties with Reform, as they try to recover from last week's election humiliation. 

Romford MP Andrew Rosindell told GB News: 'Reform is essentially a breakaway from the Conservative Party. 

'The vast majority of people in Reform are the kind of people that I could sit with and agree on, about 90 per cent of things, and most of them are ex Conservative members. So this is a family feud. That's how I see it.

'We need to bring the family back together again, because the real enemy of this country is socialism

The group of five men, including party chairman Richard Tice and former Tory MP Lee Anderson, had been expected to stage a Reservoir Dogs-style entrance to Westminster, referring to the Quentin Tarantino film about a failed diamond heist.

The other new arrivals were Rupert Lowe, former chairman of Southampton FC and now MP for Great Yarmouth, and James McMurdock, a 38-year-old former banker who unexpectedly edged the contest in South Basildon and East Thurrock by 98 votes.

The men paused for photographs by Parliament's St Stephen's Entrance, but made no statement to the press. Responding to a shout of 'Have fun' from a photographer, Mr Tice replied: 'We will.'

The group then entered Parliament, a member of Commons staff placing a green-and-white MP's lanyard around Mr Farage's neck.

Last week's election was the eighth time Mr Farage had attempted to become an MP, while his party achieved greater electoral success than either of his former outfits.

But Reform fell short of the six million votes its leader had been targeting, gaining their five seats on the back of 4.1 million votes - around 14 per cent of the total.

That figure is slightly more than the 3.9 million Ukip gained when led by Mr Farage in the 2015 election, which saw the party gain one seat.

Last Thursday also saw Reform come second in 98 seats, many of which are now held by Labour, and Mr Farage has set his sights on the new Government, saying it 'could be in trouble pretty quickly'.