Serving as an MP is a role that inevitably comes with huge public and media attention, with Nottinghamshire's representatives having been no strangers to controversy over the years. But few MPs outside of the cabinet seem to have attracted as much attention as Ashfield's Lee Anderson.
Since his election in 2019, the Conservative Party's Mr Anderson has stoked national discussion on issues ranging from trans rights to food poverty. As well as his constituency work and now his duties to the Conservative Party more broadly, Mr Anderson's time in office has seen him denying links to the British National Party, having two libel claims lodged against him and having celebrities ranging from Gary Lineker to Carol Vorderman engaging in online spats with him.
But away from the heat of social media, Lee Anderson's life and career so far is much more nuanced than those who know him only by '30p Lee' may appreciate. Below, Nottinghamshire Live takes a look at the earlier life and career of the Ashfield MP before he became known to millions around the UK.
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Entering politics
After being elected as a Labour member for the Huthwaite and Brierley ward of Ashfield in 2015, Mr Anderson soon attracted much more nationwide attention than the average local councillor receives. After having waited for weeks for action to be taken against travellers illegally camping in a car park, Mr Anderson took matters into his own hands.
In February 2018, he paid a "substantial" amount of money to hire a digger and place two huge concrete blocks by the entrance of Strawberry Bank, in Huthwaite, to deter travellers from camping there. Speaking to Nottinghamshire Live at the time, Mr Anderson said the issue was symbolic of the way in which Ashfield issues were prioritised by landowners Nottinghamshire County Council, saying: "Put it this way - if this had been in West Bridgford, it would have been sorted out within 24 hours."
Mr Anderson's time as a Labour councillor saw several such public displays of his anger with local authorities. In October of 2018, Mr Anderson hit out at his own Ashfield District Council over its refusal to clean two war memorials in time for the centenary of the end of the First World War.
Early life and family
Although he's only served as an Ashfield politician since 2015, Mr Anderson takes pride in the fact that the area has always been his hometown. He attended the John Davies Primary School in Huthwaite and the Ashfield School in Kirkby, having been born in Ashfield's Kings Mill Hospital and with his entire traceable family coming from the area too.
Family is a theme regularly returned to by Mr Anderson on social media and during his maiden speech in the House of Commons, he spoke movingly about his wife Sinead Anderson and her battle with cystic fibrosis. Herself a serving councillor on both Mansfield District Council and Nottinghamshire County Council, Sinead Anderson had to undergo a double lung transplant in 2016.
The double lung transplant took place as a result of an organ donation by someone who Lee Anderson and his family take time to remember every Christmas. In a post about her last Christmas, Lee Anderson wrote: "Remembering Holly.
"Six years ago to the week Holly passed away and gave her lungs to my wife. It was our best Christmas present ever but a terrible time for Holly's family. We think of them every day and will always be grateful to them. Love to Holly's mum and family."
In terms of his pre-political career, Mr Anderson's other primary source of pride comes from his mining background, having worked at collieries in Sutton, Creswell, Manton and Welbeck. His time in the pits saw him carry out roles ranging from rope fitter to deputy.
Despite his pride in the pits, Lee Anderson also spoke in his House of Commons maiden speech about the fact that it was a career his parents may not have wanted for him. He said: "I am sure my dad—a decent, hard-working, working-class bloke—did not want me down the pit.
"He wanted better for me, but that was taken away. I cannot help but think that, had children in my day had the chance to go to grammar school, they would have had more opportunities and probably a better life.
"Because I am telling you now, when I worked down those pits in Nottinghamshire, I worked with doctors, with brain surgeons, with airline pilots, with astronauts—with all these brilliant people who never had a chance."
Leaving Labour
After leaving the pits, Mr Anderson's career took him to Ashfield and Broxtowe's Citizens Advice Bureau, where he spent 10 years before eventually going on to work for Ashfield's then Labour MP Gloria De Piero.
But it was whilst working in Gloria De Piero's constituency office and serving as a Labour councillor in Ashfield that Mr Anderson's life-long association with the party began to dissolve. Under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the Labour Party, Mr Anderson has said he felt it was increasingly drifting towards the far-left and to a political discourse that was becoming increasingly out of touch with the people he had been elected to represent.
Mr Anderson has spoken about this decision, ironically enough, to Gloria De Piero, who since leaving Parliament has re-launched her media career which currently comprises a programme on GB News. In an interview on that programme, Mr Anderson described Gloria De Piero as a "decent MP" and a "sensible member of the Labour Party."
But speaking about why he felt he had to leave, he said: "I just thought to myself I don’t want to be signing condolence books for Fidel Castro." It was therefore in March 2018 when Mr Anderson and his fellow Labour defector Chris Baron joined the Conservative Party, marking the occasion with a photoshoot outside Mansfield MP Ben Bradley's constituency office.
That decision ultimately led to Labour losing control of Ashfield District Council, which went on to be led by Jason Zadrozny and his new party the Ashfield Independents. That party consolidated its position on Ashfield District Council in 2019, winning 30 of its 35 seats.
Turning to Parliament
But by 2019, Lee Anderson's attention had turned firmly away from Ashfield District Council and to the House of Commons. His election campaign saw his past action around travellers being heavily discussed once again, but his 2019 door knocking became infamous for an incident captured by veteran political journalist Michael Crick.
Mr Crick had been filming Mr Anderson campaigning for the Daily Mail and during one section of filming, Mr Anderson didn't realise the microphone attached to him was still recording. He was therefore picked up on audio asking a friend to act as if he didn't know him when Mr Crick and his camera crew filmed Lee Anderson knocking his door.
But the video perhaps more discussed during the election campaign itself was one posted by Mr Anderson in which he said nuisance council tenants should be made to live "in tents" and be sent out to pick potatoes. During a Nottinghamshire Live hustings event, other candidates described the language as "not tolerable."
But such controversy had seemingly little effect when it came to polling day, with Mr Anderson becoming one of several MPs to turn former Labour areas Conservative in what became known as the fall of the 'Red Wall'. Speaking to Nottinghamshire Live after his historic election victory, in terms of why it happened, Mr Anderson said: "It was really the Brexit election and last night in places like Ashfield and Mansfield it proved it. It was a Brexit election."
Despite an election dominated by Brexit, the issues which Mr Anderson focused on immediately after his election were varied, though one incident again saw him returning to the theme of travellers. In August 2020, to try and prevent travellers gaining access to a park in Selston, he used a forklift truck to move a boulder to its entrance.
But as with all MPs, Mr Anderson's early time in office became dominated by the coronavirus pandemic. He again hit the national headlines in November 2020 after testing positive for the virus and sending then Prime Minister Boris Johnson into self-isolation, being one of five other northern MPs who Mr Johnson had met with just days before in Downing Street.
Mr Anderson's meetings in Downing Street have no doubt increased since his promotion to Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party and his presence in the spotlight is unlikely to fade ahead of the next general election, expected next year. But this role in the spotlight and the regular criticism that it attracts is something that Mr Anderson has previously said he relishes.
Speaking to Nottinghamshire Live a year on from his election victory, he said: "The level of hate and nastiness has gone up a lot. I've got thick skin, so I always think that if I'm not being name-called or abused on social media, or in the media, then I'm not doing my job."
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