The 13 top Tories on ‘defection watch’ as Nigel Farage rules out merge | Politics | News

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has ruled out any merger with Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch following the departure of senior Conservative Party leader.

Former Tory deputy leader Jonathan Gullis defected to Reform this week, saying his former party had “lost touch” with voters.

Lia Nici, who was Grimsby MP until last year, and former Bolton West Tory MP Chris Green also joined “voluntarily online”.

The list of people jumping on board from the Conservative Party to join Reform could include 13 senior Conservatives.

This latest round of defections is the first since East Wiltshire MP Danny Kruger left the Conservatives to join Reform in September.

In a post on his Facebook page, Mr Gullis, who was the Conservative MP for Stoke-on-Trent North from 2010 to 2024, said he did not take the decision to run “lightly”.

He said: “I have seen over time that a party that I once believed would serve, lost touch with the people it was supposed to serve.

“From failing to control both legal and illegal immigration to pursuing a Net Zero agenda that has caused our home energy bills to rise and put jobs in Stoke-on-Trent’s world-famous ceramics industry at risk, the Conservative Party has understandably lost the trust of the British public.

“As a country, we face serious and fundamental challenges, and what is needed now is bold, radical ideas, as well as the determination to deliver them.”

A Reform source said: “The Conservative Party is dead. Only Reform can beat Labor at the next election, as polls have repeatedly shown.”