Lee Anderson says next general election will be his last as MP

Reform UK chairman Lee Anderson has said he will stand down from Parliament after the next general election, describing national politics as a chapter that is coming to a close.

In an exclusive interview with The Sun published on 2 September 2026, the 59-year-old Ashfield MP said: “Life’s ebbing away, young man. It’s slipping away so I’m going to try something else.” He added that he wanted “one more term after this, which will take me up to my late 60s,” before turning to other plans such as travelling and possibly returning to local council work.

Anderson has represented Ashfield since 2019. He was first elected as a Conservative, defected to Reform UK in March 2024 after the Tory whip was withdrawn, and was re-elected as a Reform MP in July 2024 with 42.8 per cent of the vote. He has served as the party’s chief whip since July 2024 and as chairman since May 2026.

The next general election must be held on or before 15 August 2029. Anderson framed the remaining years as a period of unfinished business rather than a wind-down. He said it was Nigel Farage’s “destiny” to lead Reform into that election and into government, calling him “our Churchill” and arguing that Farage “excites the public, whether you love him or loathe him.”

The comments come days before Reform UK’s annual conference in Birmingham. Anderson used the same interview to set out several policy positions the party is considering, including turning the BBC into a subscription service and scrapping the licence fee. He described the corporation as “the anti-Britain channel” rather than “cuddly Auntie Beeb.” He also restated his support for the death penalty, an issue on which he differs from Farage, and argued that work itself—drawing on his former career as a coal miner—has value beyond the wage.

Anderson has long presented himself as a blunt voice from the “capital of common sense,” his description of Ashfield. His announcement that he will not seek a further term after the next election marks a personal timeline for one of Reform’s most prominent and polarising figures, even as the party continues to argue it is still on a path to power.