Former Conservative culture secretary Nadine Dorries has become the latest high-profile defection to Reform UK.
Boris Johnson loyalist Ms Dorries, who resigned from the House of Commons in 2023, said she was joining Nigel Farage’s party, said she made the decision because her former party was now “dead”.
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Writing in the Daily Mail, she said: “The time for action is now and I believe that the only politician who has the answers, the knowledge and the will to deliver is Nigel Farage.”
She went on to say it was “time for change” and “time make Britain great again”.
“My decision to leave the party I’ve served for more than 30 years is possibly the most difficult I’ve ever had to make, and it has taken me 12 agonising months to reach.”
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The move will bolster Reform UK as it prepares to host its conference in Birmingham on Friday and Saturday.
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Ms Dorries follows Sir Jake Berry, a former Tory Party chairman, in joining Mr Farage’s party.
Tom Pursglove, a former Conservative minister, said he is was surprised to see the defection.
He told Sophy Ridge on the Politics Hub: “Nadine has been quite unhappy for a long period of time. Obviously she left parliament before the end of the term, so this doesn’t really surprise me.
“I hate seeing Conservative colleagues leaving the Conservative fold. It pains me when I see someone I respect and admire and actually I would consider Nadine to be a friend.”
He added: “That doesn’t change now because she’s in another party – but I hate seeing this, it’s terrible.”
A Conservative Party spokesperson said: “We wish Nadine well.”
A Labour Party spokesperson added: “Nadine Dorries says the Tory Party is dead – as one of the people who helped to kill it, she should know.
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“She backed Boris Johnson through thick and thin despite the partying in Downing Street during the pandemic while people couldn’t see their loved ones. And now she wants to help unleash the same chaos the Tories inflicted on Britain by joining Nigel Farage’s Reform.”
They added: “Nadine Dorries has gone on quite a political journey – from being the minister who introduced the Online Safety Bill to joining a party that wants to scrap it without having any idea how to replace its protections for children and adults.
“It’s a perfect illustration of how incoherent Reform are – all anger, no answers, with contradictions building by the day.”
A Liberal Democrat source said: “We don’t know who to feel more sorry for, Kemi Badenoch or Nigel Farage.”
