Conservative Party<\/a> to join Reform UK following a conversation on Sunday evening with Nigel Farage.<\/p>\nPosting on X, he wrote: \u201cSince joining the Conservative Party at the age of 14, I have been a loyal and committed supporter of the principles advocated by Margaret Thatcher that have always underpinned my own political beliefs.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, the time has come to put country before party.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe failure of the Conservative Party both when in government and more recently in opposition to actively hold the government to account on the issue of Chagossian self-determination and the defence of British sovereignty, represents a clear red line for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: “It is clear to me that Reform UK is now the only political movement that is genuinely willing to fight for the best interests of the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe views and concerns of the majority of the British people must no longer be sidelined. Our country has endured a generation of managed decline.<\/p>\n
\u201cRadical action is now required to reverse the damaging decisions of the past and to forge a new course for Britain \u2013 one that firmly places the interests of the British people first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage the MP was tipped \u201cover the edge\u201d by \u201cTory lies and hypocrisy over the Chagos Islands\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Farage said: \u201cI am delighted to welcome Andrew Rosindell to Reform UK.<\/p>\n
\u201cAndrew is a great patriot. The Tory lies and hypocrisy over the Chagos Islands betrayal tipped him over the edge.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe will be a great addition to our May 7th campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n
The defection comes just days after Robert Jenrick joined the party after Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch removed the Tory whip from him.<\/p>\n
Robert Jenrick joining Reform UK \u201cmakes it more likely that we win the next general election\u201d, Reform’s head of policy Zia Yusuf has said.<\/p>\n
Mr Jenrick said last July that Nigel Farage\u2019s party should give Mr Yusuf \u201cthe boot\u201d, when he said a member of his team had \u201caccidentally pressed like\u201d on an antisemitic post on X.<\/p>\n
Mr Yusuf apologised, after an anonymous X user posted a video that appeared to show Mr Yusuf liking a tweet attacking Mr Jenrick\u2019s wife, who is Jewish.<\/p>\n
This week Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch dismissed Mr Jenrick as shadow justice secretary and suspended him from the party, accusing him of plotting to jump ship.<\/p>\n
Mr Jenrick has conceded that he was \u201cresolved\u201d to switch to Reform before he was given the boot.<\/p>\n
Mr Yusuf has now said Mr Jenrick is \u201cthoughtful\u201d and \u201cclear-eyed about all of the different ways the Tories betrayed this country\u201d.<\/p>\n
Asked if he was in on the negotiations to bring Mr Jenrick into Reform, he told Sky News\u2019 Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: \u201cThe most important thing about Robert\u2019s arrival at Reform is that I had dinner with him on Thursday night, obviously the day he defected, my assessment is that this is a man who is thoughtful, who is clear-eyed about all of the different ways the Tories betrayed this country, and wants to help Nigel, help me, help Richard and everyone at Reform repair that damage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The defection comes just days after Robert Jenrick joined Nigel Farage’s party Tom Burnett Content Editor 20:13, 18…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":705508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,527,393,4884,2465,384,285,386,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-705507","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-conservative-party","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-manchester","13":"tag-nigel-farage","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-reform-uk","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115919491165636499","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705507","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=705507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/705508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Andrew](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0_DefectionJPG.jpg\")
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