Lee Anderson crossed the floor of the House of Commons this afternoon after his bombshell defection to Reform UK.
The Ashfield MP made his first appearance in the chamber since his switch for day four of the Budget debate.
The former Conservative Party deputy chairman sat on the back row of the opposition benches next to Workers Party of Britain MP George Galloway.
It comes after Mr Anderson was unveiled as the Nigel Farage-linked party’s first MP yesterday.
He lost the Tory whip last month after refusing to apologise for claiming that “Islamists” had “got control” of London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
Speaking on GB News last night, Mr Anderson declared “I want my country back”.
He said: “All I want is to live in a country which is safe, got police on the streets, where we control immigration, both legal and illegal migration.
“A safe country so hopefully if I ever have grandchildren, for them to grow up into and to hopefully play my part in making sure that happens.
“And at the moment, I can’t see the difference between the Labour Party and the Conservative Party. I want my country back. I think we’ve given the country away to people that don’t like our country.
“We’re importing people and letting people come into the country who don’t accept or adopt British values, don’t like our way of life, don’t like our history, our heritage, our culture, and it just keeps happening and happening time and time again.”
Mr Anderson, who is a popular figure in the Red Wall, said his parents “had a big part to play” in his decision to move to the populist party.
He also denied he was paid to defect to Richard Tice’s outfit, which is polling at up to 14% nationally.
