Nadine Dorries, the former Conservative cabinet minister and close ally of Boris Johnson, has defected to Reform UK on the eve of its party conference. In an interview with the Daily Mail, she declared: “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 former Tory MPs to defect include Andrea Jenkyns, Marco Longhi, and Adam Holloway. Lee Anderson, a former Tory vice-chair, defected in the last parliament and was elected as a Reform MP. Reform leader Nigel Farage welcomed Dorries, calling her a “hugely successful politician” who would boost the party’s campaign for the next general election.
A Labour Party spokesperson criticised Dorries, saying she was one of the people “who helped to kill” the Tory party, and accused her of backing Johnson during the Partygate scandal. The spokesperson added that Dorries had gone from introducing the Online Safety Bill to joining a party that wants to scrap it, illustrating Reform’s “incoherence.”
Dorries has been highly critical of the Conservatives, alleging a conspiracy by a faction including Michael Gove and Dominic Cummings to control the party, as detailed in her memoir The Plot. Her defection comes as Reform enjoys a double-digit poll lead and has attracted nearly £1 million in donations from former Tory donors in the second quarter of the year, including £500,000 from property billionaire Nick Candy.
Reform’s conference in Birmingham begins on Friday, where Farage will outline the party’s next steps. The party has expanded from 80,000 to nearly 240,000 members and secured 900 councillors across 12 local authorities. Despite the flow of donors to Reform, the Conservative Party still raised significantly more from private donors, with chair Kevin Hollinrake citing “continued strength of support.”
