Ex-Boris ally slams ‘dead’ Tory Party
Reform UK kicks off its annual party conference in Birmingham today with a new member in its ranks – former Tory cabinet minister Nadine Dorries.
She announced her defection last night declaring that the Conservative Party she once loyally served is now “dead”.
The ex-MP for Mid-Bedfordshire, a close ally of Boris Johnson, said she had agonised for a year before finally severing ties with the Tories, accusing them of betrayal, self-interest and abandoning their voters.
‘Time for action’
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, Ms Dorries said: “The Tory Party is dead. Its members now need to think the unthinkable and look to the future.”
She went on: “I believe you can feel a sense of dread taking hold of communities up and down the country. The time for action is now and I believe the only politician who has the answers, the knowledge and the will to deliver is Nigel Farage.”
The 67-year-old, who previously served as Culture Secretary and Health Minister, becomes the latest senior Conservative to join Reform, following former Welsh Secretary David Jones and ex-Tory Chairman Sir Jake Berry.
Criticism of Sunak and Badenoch
Ms Dorries stood down from Parliament in 2023 with a blistering attack on then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and has since turned her fire on current Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.
In her column for the Mail, she said her “core beliefs” remained unchanged since joining the Conservatives in 1995 – but claimed the party had “abandoned its principles, not me”.
She blasted fellow MPs for ousting Mr Johnson, branding them “regicidal and self-serving”, and cited crime, uncontrolled migration and the “collapse of public order” as reasons for her switch.
Political storm
Her defection comes just days before Reform’s annual conference in Birmingham, where Nigel Farage will hail the move as further evidence his party is attracting big names.
Labour mocked the switch, saying it exposed Reform as “all anger, no answers”, while the Liberal Democrats sneered they did not know whether “to feel more sorry for Kemi Badenoch or Nigel Farage”.
But in a thinly veiled swipe at her critics, Ms Dorries insisted she and Mr Farage would be “united on law and order, immigration, the need to cut public spending and support Ukraine”.
“When we disagree,” she added, “it will be in private.”
