Does Lee Anderson understand how the internet works?

When Lee Anderson withdrew his support for Boris Johnson as prime minister in July 2022 his decision had been informed by Johnson’s dishonesty about what he knew about the conduct of his deputy chief whip, Chris Pincher. “I cannot look myself in the mirror and accept this,” he wrote on Facebook. “Integrity should always come first and sadly this has not been the case over the past few days.”

Fast-forward little over a year and Anderson, now firmly ensconced as the Conservatives’ deputy chair, has learnt a little from his former leader. Said something in the past which now paints you as hypocritical? Just deny it. War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. There’s actual, easily-discoverable evidence of you having said it? Double down.

That’s the only conclusion which can be drawn from the answer Anderson gave to Politico this week over charges of hypocrisy over his £100,000-a-year gig as a GB News presenter, having previously spoken out about MPs’ second jobs. “I never said that,” he said. “You will never find a quote of me saying that.”

Except it’s 2023, and an elementary Google will find a quote of him saying that. In November 2021, amid the furore of the Owen Paterson lobbying scandal, Anderson wrote, again on Facebook: “We are paid handsomely for the job we do and if you need an extra £100,000 a year on top then you really should be looking for another job”. Does Anderson understand how the internet works?

It’s not the only questionable claim in the interview. “It only takes me three hours” per week he says of the GB News show, Lee Anderson’s Real World, highlights of which so far have included the MP encouraging a guest to eat cat food. The Commons register of interest records it as eight hours. Still, as he says, the tax on it “pays for a nurse”, as if paying tax on one’s income is an altruistic gesture rather than, say, the law.

Why does Rishi Sunak retain this lumpish blowhard – who, lest we forget, backed “anyone but Rishi” for the Conservative leadership last summer, endorsing first fellow culture warrior Kemi Badenoch then Liz Truss – as such a public face of his party? Perhaps it’s his mastery of diplomacy. Asked today about charities complaining about the use of the Bibby Stockholm to house asylum seekers, Anderson told the Daily Express: “If they don’t like barges then they should f*** off back to France.”

When Anderson was appointed the Conservatives’ deputy chair in February this year, Sky News’ Sam Coates shared a message from one MP saying: “Lee Anderson is everything that is wrong with the Conservative brand presently. He seems to rejoice in deliberately provoking and making aggressive, simplistic statements that fail to recognise the complexities of the issues facing the country. If this is the new Tory Party, many will be forgiven for deserting it.”

They might have had a point.