Lee Anderson and Nick Robinson clash in fiery exchange on the Today show as Reform MP says it would be 'music to the ears' of Gary Lineker and BBC if his new party didn't stand in local elections

Lee Anderson and Nick Robinson clashed today after the Reform Party was accused of taking votes away from the Tories in local elections.

The former deputy Conservative chairman was sacked from the Tory party after he refused to apologise for claiming that in London, 'the truth is that the Islamists, the extremists and the anti-Semites are in charge now'.

After losing the whip, he became an independent before joining the Reform Party, which was founded as the Brexit Party by Nigel Farage.

Anderson started his political career as a councillor for Labour in 2015 before being suspended by his local branch for blocking Travellers from setting up a camp in 2018 before he defected to the Tories.

In a heated debate on BBC Radio 4 Today, the journeyman politician claimed BBC stalwarts such as Nick Robinson and Gary Lineker would be glad if Reform didn't stand in local elections.

Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives had a disastrous election night that saw Labour win the Blackpool South by-election.

The Tory candidate barely manage to push Reform into third place, by just 117 votes. 

This morning, Robinson asked Anderson: 'Is this what you wanted to achieve when you defected to the Reform party?'

Anderson replied: 'I didn't defect, let's get that right, you're wrong again. I was an independent MP when I joined the Reform Party, so if you're going to conduct this interview professionally, let's get the facts right.'

Robinson retorted: 'You were a Conservative, you were an office holder in the Conservative Party and joined another party.'

Anderson said: 'Look, listen, I didn't defect. Stop being so ridiculous. I was an independent MP and I joined the Reform Party. I didn't defect from one party to another.'

Finally, Robinson accepted that Anderson was briefly an independent before he joined Reform.

Anderson added: 'That's cleared that nonsense up, straight away. 

'So it was a good night for Labour, let's be honest. It was a very, very poor night for the Conservative Party.

'We got nearly 17 per cent here in Blackpool, which is tremendous. That's above our polling nationally.

'Up and down the country we did well.'

Robinson then asked whether a vote for Reform was a vote for Labour, as the Tories have suggested and the polls seem to confirm.

He said: 'What they say, your old friends in the Conservative Party, which just to remind you, you were Deputy Chairman of, what they say is, you vote reform and you get Labour.

'John Curtis, the renowned psephologist, points out that in the areas you ran, the Conservative vote was down 17 per cent on average but it was only down 11 per cent where you didn't run. So it is clearly the case that you damage the Conservatives, isn't it?'

Anderson, infuriated again, said: 'First of all, I don't know why you have to keep reminding me that I was a Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party. I think anybody who is interested in politics would have known that anyway, so that's a pretty pointless comment again from you.

'But you look at a lot of the polls up and down the country, and in a lot of the council elections we saw last night, Labour are getting 50, 60 per cent of the vote.

'So you could've knocked all the Reform and the Conservative votes and the Green votes and the independent votes together and the Labour Party would've still won.'

Robinson replied: 'But where you ran against the Conservatives the vote went down more than when you didn't run against the Conservatives, that's just a fact.'

Anderson asked: 'What are you trying to say Nick?'

'I'm asking you about a fact,' Robinson said.

The former Tory MP replied: 'I know the Reform Party not standing in these areas would be music to your ears and the Gary Linekers of the BBC but look, we're here to stay. We're making inroads , we're a small party.

'Our trajectory is going up and up and up and the Tory party is going down and down and down and come the General Election, this party is going to win seats, so a vote for Reform will be a vote for Reform.'