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Jonathan Gullis, an MP of the Conservative Party, has been appointed as the Deputy Chairman of the party after Lee Anderson quit to join Reform UK. Gullis announced the news on his X handle, saying he was “ready to take the fight to Sir Kier’s hopeless and hapless Labour Party.”
Gullis was elected as the MP for Stoke-on-Trent North in 2019 after unseating Labour’s Ruth Smeeth, becoming the first Conservative to represent the constituency.
Lee Anderson, the former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, resigned in January as an act of rebellion against PM Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda plan. His resignation from the chair soon led to his parting ways with the Tories, as Anderson joined Reform UK on March 11.
The 57-year-old wants asylum seekers to be immediately returned to their countries. He supports the return of capital punishment and is nicknamed “30p Lee” after claiming that decent meals could be made for 30 pence. At a press conference alongside Richard Tice, the Reform Leader, Anderson shared his statement about what led him to leave the Tories:
Anderson isn’t the only minister to have quit the Tories this year. Robert Halfon and James Heappey, the education and armed forces ministers of the Tories, respectively, have both handed in their resignations. Their exits led the Prime Minister to a mini-reshuffle, which resulted in Jonathan Gullis assuming the chair.
Jonathan Gullis takes up the deputy chair as an MP for Stoke-on-Trent
On March Tuesday, 26, 2024, Rishi Sunak appointed Jonathan Gullis as the deputy chairman of the Conservative Party. Before Rishi Sunak, PM Liz Truss had appointed Gullis as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for School Standards in September 2022.
In the same week, Sunak dismissed Gullis upon replacing Truss as the PM. Following his dismissal, Gullis announced his decision to support the government from the backbenches. He is also a member of the European Research Group.
Sunak’s decision to appoint Gullis as the deputy chairman has attracted a lot of criticism on social media. Here are some of the comments on X:
Who is Jonathan Gullis?
Jonathan Gullis was born on January 9, 1990, and was a teacher before he entered British politics in 2011. He attended Princethorp College in Warwickshire, England, and then studied International Relations with Law at Oxford Brooks University.
Gullis' teaching career lasted seven years—2012 to 2019—during which he taught at Blackfen School for Girls, Fairfax Academy, Ashlawn School, and Greenwood Academy. In May 2011, the 34-year-old was elected as the Conservative Councillor in Shipston of Stratford-upon-Avon, from which he resigned in October 2012, returning to his teaching job.
Jonathan Gullis has claimed in the past that he has gone through a divorce, although the identity of his former spouse remains unknown to this date. Currently, Gullis has a partner, Nikita, with whom he shares two children – a daughter and a son.
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