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And Coun Nigel Moxon (Con), chairman of the Ashfield and Mansfield Conservative Federation, who represents Mansfield East on Nottinghamshire Council, and Ling Forest on Mansfield Council said the move would only increase the chances of Labour winning the next general election.

Mr Anderson, MP for Ashfield, announced that he was joining Reform having had the Conservative whip withdrawn last month after saying Islamists had ‘control’ of London Mayor Sadiq Khan – comments he made clear he would not be apologising for.

He said: “I want my country back.

Coun Nigel Moxon said Mr Anderson's decision to defect to Reform UK from the Tories was 'regrettable'

"Like millions of people in this country, I feel that we are slowly giving our country away, we are giving away our way of life, we are allowing people to erase our history, we are giving up our streets to a minority of people who literally hate our way of life.

"We are allowing people into our country who will never integrate and adopt our British values and Parliament doesn’t seem to understand what many British people want and, quite frankly, some of them need to get out more.”

Mansfield’s Mayor ‘disappointed’ by Budget support for councils

Coun Moxon said: “Locally, we regret that Lee Anderson has made this decision.

"It is clear that voting for Reform can’t deliver anything apart from a Keir Starmer-led Labour Government that would take us back to square one – which means higher taxes, higher energy costs, no action on channel crossings and uncontrolled immigration.

"As a local Conservative federation, we are continuing to work hard for the people of Ashfield and Mansfield, and we are continuing to campaign for the election of Ben Bradley to the role of regional mayor in May, which will unlock an additional £4bn of investment for our area, of which £1.5bn can be spent on repairing our roads.

"Labour, Reform and the Independents have no plan for Ashfield.

"Only the Conservatives are getting things done for Ashfield and delivering on priorities of Ashfield’s residents.

A decision on a new parliamentary candidate for Ashfield will be decided in due course.

Mansfield and Ashfield Tories say Lee Anderson's decision to join Reform is 'regrettable'