Full list of former Tories who have defected to Nigel Farage’s Reform
Former Conservative Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi has become the latest Conservative to defect to Reform Britain.
Serving under Boris Johnson in 2022, Mr Zahawi joins a growing list of Conservative politicians choosing to join Nigel Farage’s political group. His departure comes a decade after he told Farage on X, then known as Twitter, that he had “been a Conservative all my life and will die a Conservative”.
But he told a press conference on Monday: “I decided that the team that would serve this country would be the team that Nigel would build and that’s why I decided to join Reform UK.”
A Conservative Party spokesman said in dissent: “Reform is fast becoming the party of old politicians looking for the next gravy train.”
Mr Zahawi was sacked as Conservative Party leader in 2023 after he was found to have breached the ministerial code on tax affairs. It later confirmed it had paid a penalty of around £5 million to HMRC to resolve the matter.
The former cabinet minister has the potential to be the Conservative Party’s most significant figure to leave Reformation England so far. He joins the likes of Lee Anderson, Nadine Dorries and Danny Kruger as former Conservatives who have joined Reform UK in the last two years.
Here are other Conservatives who have defected to Reform UK:
Lee Anderson
Mr Anderson was elected Conservative MP for Ashfield in 2019; In March 2024, Reform defected to the UK and has since become Chief Whip. He retained his seat as a Reform UK MP in the 2024 general election.
Jonathan Gullis
In December last year, Mr Gullis announced he was defecting to Reform UK, more than a year after admitting he had been unable to find permanent work since losing his seat as the Conservative MP for Stoke-on-Trent North at the 2024 general election. He was a Conservative Party MP from 2019 to 2024, and briefly served as party deputy leader from March 2024.
Nadine Dorries
After 25 years as a Conservative Party member, Ms Dorries announced she would be heading to Reform England in September last year. The former politician was MP for Mid Bedfordshire from 2005 to 2023 and was Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport under Boris Johnson from 2021 to 2022.
David Jones
Last summer, the former cabinet minister and Clwyd West MP defected to Farage’s party after more than 50 years as a member of the Conservative Party. He represented the Clwyd West constituency from 2005 to 2024. In his farewell speech, Mr Jones said: “Today, Reform UK is the party that best represents my views and, I believe, the views of many others who are disillusioned with the two great old parties.”
Woman Andrea Jenkyns
Dame Andrew, who served as Conservative MP for Morely and Outwood from 2015 to May 2024, left the party for Reform UK in November of the same year. He then announced his candidacy for Reform in the 2025 election for the newly created Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire last year and joined the party’s decision-making board.
Danny Kruger
Mr Kruger, the East Wiltshire MP who was previously Devizes, was one of the most high-profile figures to leave Reform UK since 2019 in September last year. He told a press conference: “This is my tragic outcome; the Conservative Party is finished, it is finished as a national party, it is finished as the main opposition of the left.”
Lucy Allan
Ms Allan, the former MP for Telford from 2015 to 2024, resigned and was suspended from the Conservative Party at the last general election after openly supporting the Reform UK candidate in the same constituency she previously represented.
Sir Jake Berry
After serving as MP for Rossendale and Darwen from 2010 to 2024, Sir Jake defected to Reform last July. A Conservative MP, he was briefly Leader of the Conservative Party in 2022 and was secretary of state for the northern powerhouse and local growth from 2017 to 2020 under both Theresa May and Boris Johnson.
Anne-Marie Morris
Last year Ms Morris joined Reform UK to drive social care policy. Before this, he served as the Conservative MP for Newton Abbot from 2010 to 2024. During his 14-year tenure, he lost the party whip twice, for a nine-month period between July and December 2017 and then again between January and May 2022.
Marco Longhi
In January last year, Mr Longhi switched from the Conservative Party to Reform UK and is now chairman of Turning Point UK. The former Conservative MP for Dudley North has been a member of the Conservative Party since 1999.
Ross Thomson
Mr Thomson, the former MP for Aberdeen South from 2017 to 2019, was a key supporter of Boris Johnson. In June last year, Reform announced he was defecting to England, saying “only Reform has the courage and the answers to the problems facing Scotland and the UK”.
Chris Green
Mr Green is one of the last Conservatives to defect to Reform England in December last year after serving as MP for Bolton West from 2015 to 2024.
Lia Nici
Ms Nici switched from the Conservative Party to Reform in December, following a career as MP for Great Grimsby between 2019 and 2024. He served as government aide to Liz Truss during her brief tenure as prime minister in 2022.
