Nadine Dorries defects to Reform on eve of party conference
Former culture secretary says ‘Tory party is dead’ as she announces move
Nadine Dorries has defected to Reform UK on the eve of the party’s conference.
The former culture secretary declared that “the Tory party is dead” as she announced her defection to Nigel Farage’s party on Thursday night.
Ms Dorries, a close ally of Boris Johnson, is the highest profile former Conservative to join Reform.
Her defection follows that of Jake Berry, a former party chairman and fellow Johnson ally, and David Jones, a former Welsh secretary.
She said: “The Tory Party is dead. Its members now need to think the unthinkable and look to the future.”
Mr Farage said: “I am absolutely delighted to welcome Nadine Dorries to Reform UK. She is a hugely successful politician, author and columnist, and will be a great boost to our campaign to win the next general election.”
It comes as the leader promised to change the law to better protect free speech in Britain if Reform wins the next general election.
Writing for The Telegraph, he said his party will “fight to the death for your right to say something that we fundamentally disagree with”.
Ms Dorries’ defection fires the starting gun on the party’s two-day conference in Birmingham, which will see Mr Farage attempt to convince voters Reform has the plans and the people for government.
He will address conference delegates on Friday afternoon as his party continues to top the opinion polls.
A survey published by Find Out Now on Wednesday put Reform on 32 points, with the Conservatives on 17 per cent, two behind Labour.
Ms Dorries has been a Tory member for three decades and served as an MP for 18 years.
She continued to support Mr Johnson in the run-up to his resignation as prime minister three years ago, despite her Cabinet colleagues calling on him to go, and repeatedly used her high profile and columns to defend him.
In 2023, Ms Dorries became embroiled in a row with Rishi Sunak after not receiving a peerage in Mr Johnson’s resignation honours list.
She accused Mr Sunak’s aides of removing her name from the list and blamed “sinister forces” for the fact she was not elevated to the upper house. Later that year, she resigned her mid-Bedfordshire seat, triggering a by-election that was won by Labour.
A Conservative friend of Ms Dorries said: “The ravens are leaving the tower.”
One of Reform’s primary focuses is on freedom of speech, with Mr Farage having noted the recent arrest of Graham Linehan, the creator of Father Ted, for tweets about transgender issues, and the imprisonment of Lucy Connolly.
“Be in no doubt, we fully understand that every parent and grandparent (like me) in our country wants to protect young people online.
“But the Online Safety Act, passed by the Tories and enforced by Labour, is using a sledgehammer to miss the nut altogether, and in the process restricting our ability to discuss important issues online. We need to find a better way to make children safer without making adults less free.
“The British establishment has forgotten the Voltairean principle, that we will fight to the death for your right to say something that we fundamentally disagree with.”
The US-style plan is outlined in an interview with Zia Yusuf, a senior Reform official, who says as many as half of members of the future Cabinet could be peers.
The approach would be a radical change to how Labour and the Tories have appointed cabinets for generations and trigger questions about political accountability and democratic norms.
[Source: Daily Telegraph]
