A former Conservative health minister has joined Reform UK, according to reports, just a day after a sitting Tory MP crossed the floor to the rival party.
Maria Caulfield, the ex-MP for Lewes in East Sussex, has defected to Nigel Farage’s party after failing to hold her seat in last year’s general election.
The fresh blow to Kemi Badenoch’s Tories comes just a day after shadow minister Danny Kruger became the first current Conservative MP to defect to Reform while claiming his former party was “over”.
GB News revealed Ms Caulfield had joined Reform UK.
She told the broadcaster: “If you are conservative right-minded, then the future is Reform. The country is going to change a lot.
“The same people who thought that Brexit would not happen think that Reform will not happen. They are in for a shock.”
The ex-MP returned to her previous job as a nurse after leaving Parliament and switched her allegiance a month ago, according to GB News.
Although less damaging to Mrs Badenoch than the defection of sitting MP Mr Kruger, the revelation adds to the building sense of exodus from the traditional party of the centre right.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, East Wiltshire MP Mr Kruger went further than merely criticising Mrs Badenoch’s leadership of the Tories.
He suggested that it was now “too late” to save the Conservatives, even under a new leader such as Robert Jenrick, whose bid for the party leadership Mr Kruger supported last year.
He told the press conference he had been in discussions with Reform about defecting over the summer, but had not spoken to Mrs Badenoch beforehand, instead informing Conservative chief whip Rebecca Harris on Monday morning.
Mr Kruger also urged his colleagues to join him in Mr Farage’s party, saying: “I would hope that colleagues who share my view about the crisis the country is in and the opportunity that Reform offers to save our country.”
Shadow chancellor Mel Stride insisted Mr Kruger was “profoundly wrong” to say the Conservative Party was “over” when he defected to Reform UK.
Asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme about Mr Kruger’s comments, Mr Stride said: “Well, he’s profoundly wrong. I’m sorry to see Danny go, but his analysis is wrong.
“We don’t have an election now for another four years.
“It is certainly the case that we had a devastating defeat about a year ago, that we lost that connection with the electorate, that trust with the electorate, and it is also true that it will take us time to rebuild that.”
Mr Stride said the Conservatives were now holding the Government “ruthlessly” to account, which formed part of rebuilding trust between the party and the public.
