Nadine Dorries, the former Conservative cabinet minister and close ally of Boris Johnson, has defected to Nigel Farage's Reform UK on the eve of the party's conference. She told the Daily Mail: 'The Tory party is dead. Its members now need to think the unthinkable and look to the future.' Dorries, who served as culture secretary until 2022 and resigned after being blocked from a peerage, said the Conservatives had left her and her values now aligned with Reform.
Dorries is the third former cabinet minister to join Reform in recent months, following Jake Berry and David Jones. Other ex-Tory MPs to defect include Andrea Jenkyns, Marco Longhi, Adam Holloway, and Lee Anderson. Reform leader Nigel Farage welcomed Dorries, calling her 'a hugely successful politician, author and columnist' who will boost the party's campaign to win the next general election.
A Labour Party spokesperson criticised Dorries, saying she 'helped to kill' the Tories and highlighting her support for Boris Johnson during the Partygate scandal. They added that her move from introducing the Online Safety Bill to joining a party that wants to scrap it illustrates Reform's incoherence.
Reform UK has seen a surge in support, rising from 19% to 30% in polls and expanding membership from 80,000 to nearly 240,000. The party also attracted almost £1m from former Tory donors in the second quarter of 2024, including £500,000 from property billionaire Nick Candy, £200,000 from Bassim Haidar, and £100,000 from Johan Christofferson. Despite this, the Conservatives still raised more from private donors overall.
