Former Conservative party chair Jake Berry defects to Reform UK

The former Conservative party chair Sir Jake Berry has joined Reform UK in the most high-profile defection so far to Nigel Farage’s party from the Tories.

In a fresh blow to Kemi Badenoch, the former cabinet minister said his former party had “abandoned the British people” and said he wanted to see Reform UK form the next government.

Berry, a close ally of Liz Truss and Boris Johnson, led the “northern powerhouse” group of MPs but lost his seat at the 2024 election. He said the Conservatives and Labour had “wrecked” the country over the past 20 years.

In an article for the Sun, Berry said he was leaving the Conservative party after 25 years as a member and 14 as an MP. He said his former party shared responsibility with Labour for the state of the UK.

“I hear from people in my community and beyond who say the same thing – ‘This isn’t the Britain I grew up in.’ And they’re right,” he wrote.

“It didn’t start with Labour. The Conservative governments I was part of share the blame … If you were deliberately trying to wreck the country, you’d be hard-pressed to do a better job than the last two decades of Labour and Tory rule.

“Millions of people, just like me, want a country they can be proud of again. The only way we get that is with Reform in government. That’s why I’ve resigned from the Conservative party. I’m now backing Reform UK and working to make them the next party of government.”

The former MP for Rossendale and Darwen said that people who had believed in Johnson’s levelling up agenda in northern English seats had been particularly let down.

“The truth is, the Conservatives have lost their way. They’ve abandoned their principles. They’ve abandoned the British people. And they’ve abandoned me,” he wrote.

Berry, who will bring significant organising experience to Reform, said that his new party “is now the real opposition. Not the Conservatives. Not the Lib Dems. They’ve had their chance and now Reform represents our last chance.”

Berry is the fifth former Conservative MP to defect to Reform UK in recent years and the second ex-cabinet minister, after the former Welsh secretary David Jones.

Lee Anderson, who was Conservative MP for Ashfield, defected during the previous parliament and is one of Reform UK’s four MPs. Others who have defected include the ex-MP Marco Longhi and Andrea Jenkyns, who is the Reform mayor for Greater Lincolnshire.

No sitting Conservative MP has defected during this parliament, though there are significant concerns among party officials that the former home secretary Suella Braverman might consider moving to Farage’s party.

Berry lost his seat in Rossendale and Darwen in Lancashire in last July’s general election to Labour’s Andy MacNae, who had a majority of 6,000 over him.

MacNae won with 18,247 votes to Berry’s 12,619, while Reform’s candidate, Daniel Matchett, followed in third with 9,695 votes.

Since his loss, the former Tory chair has worked in broadcasting, hosting a show on Talk TV.

A Labour party spokesperson said: “Not content with taking advice from Liz Truss, Nigel Farage has now tempted her Tory party chairman into his ranks.

“It’s clear Farage wants Liz Truss’s reckless economics, which crashed our economy and sent mortgages spiralling, to be Reform’s blueprint for Britain. It’s a recipe for disaster and working people would be left paying the price.”