Nadine Dorries declares conservative party “dead” as she joins Reform UK
Former Conservative MP and Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries has defected to Reform UK.
She wrote in the Daily Mail: "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."
Ms. Dorries, announcing her decision, also said that "it’s time for change" and to "make Britain great again," declaring the Tory Party "dead."
She wrote: "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 agonizing months to reach."
It comes a day before the Reform UK party conference begins.
"We wish Nadine well," the Conservative Party has said.
Ms. Dorries, 68, is the highest-profile Tory to join Reform after defections from former party chairman Sir Jake Berry, former Wales secretary David Jones, and Dame Andrea Jenkyns.
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “Nadine Dorries says the Tory party is dead – as one of the people who helped to kill it, she should know.
“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.”
A Liberal Democrat source said: “We don’t know who to feel more sorry for, Kemi Badenoch or Nigel Farage.”
In a post on X, newly-elected Green Party leader Zack Polanski said: “Nadine Dorries joining Reform isn’t a shock. It’s logical for a politics of cruelty, corruption, and the collapse of neoliberalism.
“The rise of Reform is the fault of a failing Labour Government & their vapid politics. We’re growing the alternative.”
Ms. Dorries wrote that her “core beliefs” were the same as when she first joined the Conservatives in 1995, adding that the party “had changed not me.”
She stepped down as an MP in 2023 after 18 years in the House of Commons and accused former leader Rishi Sunak of “demeaning his office by opening the gates to whip up a public frenzy” against her.
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