Tory class of 2019: The not so good, the bad, and the ugly

109 Conservatives are being newly sworn in as MPs this week. These are the candidates who helped to swell Boris Johnson’s majority in parliament to 80 – the largest Tory majority since 1987.

But who are these newly-elected MPs? LabourList has had a quick look through the shiny new Tory faces to get an idea of just how many more unsavoury characters will now be lurking in the corridors of power.

Karl McCartney, Lincoln

Hope Not Hate called for McCarney to be suspended by the Conservative Party for sharing several social media posts from far-right commentator Katie Hopkins and former EDL leader Tommy Robinson.

The organisation said that the posts contained material that was both “anti-Muslim and antisemitic”. The group said that McCartney retweeted “far-right propaganda” over a sustained period beginning in 2018.

His social media has got him in trouble before. In 2014, the new MP claimed that his Twitter account had been hacked after he appeared to have ‘liked’ a pornographic image.

McCartney won the Lincoln parliamentary constituency with a majority of 3,514 on December 12th, ousting Labour then-frontbencher Karen Lee.

Lee Anderson, Ashfield

Ashfield’s new MP is currently being investigated for antisemitism following claims that he was an active member of a Facebook group in which users have promoted George Soros conspiracy theories.

The Tory politician also incited controversy during the campaign when he suggested that “nuisance” council tenants should be made to live in tents and pick vegetables. Labour said this amounted to an endorsement of “forced labour camps”.

In a bizarre trajectory, Anderson went from being a Labour councillor and office manager for the local Labour MP to standing as the Conservative candidate for parliament earlier this month.

He won the seat with a majority of 5,733 for the Conservatives; the constituency was previously held by Labour’s Gloria de Piero – Anderson’s old boss.

Stuart Anderson, Wolverhampton South West

After serving in the armed forces, the Tory MP for Wolverhampton South West became a director and shareholder in a firm which trained security guards. Unfortunately for him it went under in 2013, owing HMRC £271,738.

Luckily for him, the directors all received payments, and Anderson received £54,458 in unlawful dividends, according to a Guardian report. He later repaid £2,000.

Receiving an illegal dividend payment is not a criminal offence. But directors have a responsibility to check whether there are sufficient profits before authorisation.

Anthony Browne, South Cambridgeshire

Browne, who worked as an aide to Boris Johnson, seems to have a similar tendency for offensive column writing. In 2003, Browne wrote for the Spectator in 2003, accusing immigrants of spreading HIV and bringing germs to the country.

The newly-elected Conservative MP also wrote a book – ‘Do we need mass immigration?‘ – in which he appeared to argue that Muslims have divided loyalties.

Browne achieved a majority of 2,904 on December 12th, with Labour’s Dan Greef finishing in third place behind the Lib Dems.

Brendan Clarke-Smith, Bassetlaw

The new Bassetlaw MP was heckled during one of the local hustings prior to the general election for having said that food banks are being used as a “political weapon” and that it was “simply not true” that “people can’t afford to buy food on a regular basis”.

 

The candidate doubled-down in a later interview, telling The Mirror: “If you keep saying to people that you’re going to give stuff away, then you’re going to have an increase I’m afraid.”

Clarke-Smith comfortably won the seat formerly occupied by John Mann. Labour’s Keir Morrison came second in the constituency, 14,013 votes behind the Conservative candidate.

Sally Ann-Hart, Hastings and Rye

The Conservatives defied calls throughout the election to suspend their candidate for Hastings and Rye, who won the seat on December 12th with a majority of 4,043.

Hart was accused of Islamophobia after it came to light that she endorsed a blog-post by an anti-Islam author that claimed Muslims were brainwashing young Americans. She described it as an “affecting read” shortly before being selected as a Tory candidate in 2017.

The new MP is also being investigated for antisemitism after sharing an antisemitic video – called “the real face of the European Union”, which promoted a conspiracy theory about George Soros – and for ‘liking’ a Nazi slogan posted below it.

That is not all. At a local hustings before the election, Hart argued that “people with learning difficulties don’t understand about money” and should therefore be paid less than minimum wage.

The Tory politician also blamed terrorism on multiculturalism, attacked “Islamic fellow travellers” and “feminist lunatics”, and shared an article saying that the outrage over the Grenfell fire is a “fake news bonanza”.

Hart’s record casts doubt on the Prime Minister’s claim during the election campaign that any Conservative guilty of racism would be “out first bounce”.

The 2019 general election was the second time that Hart had been selected to stand as a Tory parliamentary candidate, having previously vied for a seat in Durham in 2017.

Ian Levy, Blyth Valley

Levy is accused of having misled voters by repeatedly falsely claiming to have worked as a nurse for 30 years on social media, according to an investigation by the Nursing Times.

The new MP does not appear in the nursing and midwifery council register, and a spokesperson from the NHS Trust he worked at said: “We can confirm that Mr Ian Levy is employed as a healthcare assistant.”

Only the term ‘registered nurse’ is protected so Levy has not technically violated the Nurse Registration Act 1919. But he has since edited his posts on social media to reflect that he is not, in fact, a nurse.