{"id":246053,"date":"2025-07-07T19:40:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T19:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/246053\/"},"modified":"2025-07-07T19:40:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T19:40:10","slug":"david-jones-defects-to-reform-uk-in-huge-win-for-nigel-farage-politics-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/246053\/","title":{"rendered":"David Jones defects to Reform UK in huge win for Nigel Farage | Politics | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

An ex-Tory Cabinet minister and leading Brexiteer has joined Reform UK<\/a> in a major defection. David Jones said Reform is the party that “best represents my views” and warned of disillusionment with the Tories<\/a> and Labour.<\/p>\n

The former Brexit<\/a> minister said the two main parties are not doing enough to tackle issues including illegal immigration and “the steady erosion of our national sovereignty”. Mr Jones told GB News: \u201cToday, Reform UK is the party that best represents my views \u2014 and, I believe, those of many others who have become disillusioned with the two old major parties.<\/p>\n

\u201cAcross the country, people are rightly concerned about the rising cost of living<\/a>, the escalating crisis of illegal immigration, and the steady erosion of our national sovereignty.<\/p>\n

“Neither the Government nor the official Opposition is addressing these issues with the urgency or resolve they demand – indeed, the Government is actively surrendering our sovereignty at an alarming rate.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly Reform UK is demonstrating the determination needed to tackle the country\u2019s many problems and to improve the lives of people across Britain.”<\/p>\n

The former Welsh Secretary said he did not receive a reply when he wrote to the Conservative Party saying he would not renew his membership.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI left the Conservative Party in January, bringing to an end more than 50 years of continuous membership. It was, naturally, a very difficult decision for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a matter of courtesy, I wrote to the party chairman in October to inform him of my intention not to renew my membership. I did not receive a reply.<\/p>\n

\u201cI joined the Conservatives<\/a> all those years ago because I believed it was the party that best reflected my values and beliefs. Regrettably, that is no longer the case.”<\/p>\n

Mr Jones added that he did not intend to return to frontline politics.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI have joined Reform UK as a private individual and have no intention of seeking elected office. But I will give the party my full support in the elections ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Jones was the Conservative MP for Clwyd West from 2005 until the last general election when he stood down.<\/p>\n

He was a key figure in the Brexit<\/a> campaign and served as deputy chairman of the influential European Research Group of Tory backbench Brexiteers from 2019 to 2024.<\/p>\n

Mr Jones is the latest in a series of defections to Reform from the Tories<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Others who have jumped ship include ex-Tory minister Dame Andrea Jenkyns, who is Greater Lincolnshire mayor, and former Red Wall MP Marco Longhi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An ex-Tory Cabinet minister and leading Brexiteer has joined Reform UK in a major defection. David Jones said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[527,95518,95519,12,384,386,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-246053","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-conservative-party","10":"tag-david-jones","11":"tag-david-jones-reform-uk","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-nigel-farage","14":"tag-reform-uk","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114813653746076029","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}