International

Ex-Senior UK Tory Defects To Fringe Right-Wing Party

Published

2 years ago

March 11, 2024

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Embattled UK leader Rishi Sunak suffered a fresh blow Monday when a former ally defected to a right-wing populist party that is worrying the ruling Conservatives ahead of this year’s general election.

Lee Anderson announced that he was joining Reform UK, weeks after he was suspended from Sunak’s Conservative party over comments widely condemned as racist and Islamophobic.

The 57-year-old former deputy chair of the Tories became the first MP to represent Reform, whose honorary president is arch-Eurosceptic and Brexit figurehead Nigel Farage.

The fringe party is currently polling at around 10 percent in opinion surveys, which if replicated at the election could split the right-wing vote in key constituencies.

That would make it even harder for the Tories, in power since 2010, to fend off a resurgent main opposition Labour party that is currently soaring ahead in national polls.

To blunt Reform’s impact, Sunak could take his party further rightward, continuing a trend in recent decades that has accelerated following the 2016 referendum on leaving the European Union.

Doing so risks alienating more socially liberal voters, however.

Anderson is an MP in a so-called “Red Wall” seat of working-class voters in northern England that are crucial to both the Conservatives and Labour’s chances of winning the election.

The seats were former Labour strongholds before ex-prime minister Boris Johnson flipped them for the Conservatives during his landslide win at the last election in 2019 on a promise to “get Brexit done”.

The New Conservatives, a group of MPs on the right of the Tory party who have rebelled against Sunak, said the Conservative party was responsible for Anderson’s defection.

“We cannot pretend any longer that ‘the plan is working’. We need to change course urgently,” the group said in a statement.

– Populist –

Reform rails against immigration, net-zero energy policies and what it calls overbearing “nanny state” government regulations, and its members regularly heap praise on former US president Donald Trump.

“I want my country back,” Anderson told reporters in London as he announced his defection.

He had been widely tipped to join Reform after he was suspended from the parliamentary party of the Conservatives in February for refusing to apologise after saying London’s Labour mayor Sadiq Khan was controlled by Islamists.

“Anderson’s defection does highlight the ongoing electoral problem facing Rishi Sunak, with attacks coming from the left and right,” said Emma Levin of the polling firm Savanta.

But she cautioned that the move “will likely mean very little in national polling terms”.

“Lee Anderson’s name recognition among the wider public is low, and if voters are aware of him, it is probably because they saw (and disagreed) with his comments that led to his suspension from the Conservative party,” Levin said.

In the UK, a by-election is not automatically triggered if an MP changes party affiliation, though they may choose to stand down and seek re-election under their new allegiance or as an independent.

Sunak has yet to announce the date of the general election but has said it will be held in the second half of the year.

AFP

International

South Africa kicks out Israel’s ambassador Ariel Seidman

The South African foreign ministry accused Ariel Seidman of “unacceptable violations of diplomatic norms and practice which pose a direct challenge to South Africa’s sovereignty.”

Published

2 days ago

January 30, 2026

OCHEFA

23 Views

•Cyril Ramaphosa, South African President

The South African government on Friday declared Mr Ariel Seidman, the chargé d’affaires of the Israeli Embassy, unwelcome and ordered him out of the country within 72 hours, for what it called repeated violations of diplomatic norms, including insulting President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The South African foreign ministry accused Ariel Seidman of “unacceptable violations of diplomatic norms and practice which pose a direct challenge to South Africa’s sovereignty”.

“These violations include the repeated use of official Israeli social media platforms to launch insulting attacks” on Ramaphosa, as well as a “deliberate failure” to notify the South African authorities about visits by senior Israeli officials.

Diplomatic relations between South Africa and Israel have been strained since South Africa brought a genocide case over Israel’s actions in Gaza at the International Court of Justice. Israel has rejected the case as baseless.

South African lawmakers in 2023 voted in favour of closing down the Israeli embassy in Pretoria and suspending all diplomatic relations over the war in Gaza, but that decision was never implemented.

International

Burkina Faso military government dissolves political parties

Burkina Faso’s Interior Minister Emile Zerbo said the decision was part of a broader effort to “rebuild the state” after what he said were widespread abuses and dysfunction in the country’s multiparty system.

Published

2 days ago

January 30, 2026

OCHEFA

20 Views

•Photo: Heads of state of Mali’s Assimi Goita, Burkina Faso’s Captain Ibrahim Traore and Niger’s General Abdourahamane Tiani walk together during the first ordinary summit of heads of state and governments of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) in Niamey, Niger July 6, 2024. REUTERS/Mahamadou Hamidou.

Burkina Faso’s military-led government has dissolved all political parties and scrapped the legal framework governing their operations.

The decree was approved by the government ‘s council of ministers on Thursday.

The decision by the military rulers who seized power in September 2022 is the latest move to tighten control following the suspension of political activities after the coup.

He said a government review found that the multiplication of political parties had fuelled divisions and weakened social cohesion.

Before the coup, the country had over 100 registered political parties, with 15 represented in parliament after the 2020 general election.

International

Colombian plane crash kills lawmaker, 14 others

The Cúcuta region is known for its rugged terrain, unpredictable weather conditions and areas controlled by Colombia’s largest guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army.

Published

2 days ago

January 30, 2026

OCHEFA

28 Views

A twin-propeller aircraft carrying 15 people, including a Colombian lawmaker, Diogenes Quintero, crashed in a mountainous region near the Venezuelan border on January 28.

AFP reported that the aircraft departed from the border city of Cúcuta and lost contact with air traffic control shortly before it was scheduled to land in the nearby town of Ocaña at about 5:00 p.m. GMT.

“There are no survivors,” an official of the aviation authority told AFP. The plane was carrying 13 passengers and two crew members.

The Cúcuta region is known for its rugged terrain, unpredictable weather conditions and areas controlled by Colombia’s largest guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army.

In a separate report, NDTV disclosed that the government deployed the Colombian Air Force to locate the aircraft and recover the bodies.

Local parliamentarian Wilmer Carrillo expressed concern over the incident, saying, “We have received with concern the information about the air accident in which my colleague, Diogenes Quintero, Carlos Salcedo and their teams were travelling.”

Quintero is a member of Colombia’s Chamber of Deputies, while Salcedo is a candidate in the upcoming elections. The crash adds to a history of fatal aviation accidents involving prominent figures in Colombia.

In January 2025, a private plane crashed in central-eastern Colombia, killing all six people on board, including singer Yeison Jiménez.