‘Voting Reform is now like voting Conservative’: Readers slam Tory defectors joining Nigel Farage
Our community criticised Reform UK as little more than a refuge for ex-Tories, arguing that defectors prioritise personal ambition over public service and that the party offers few new policies beyond a continuation of Conservative failings
Readers were quick to condemn recent defections from the Conservative Party to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, seeing the party as little more than a refuge for self-serving ex-Tories.
Commenters argued that high-profile figures such as Robert Jenrick, Nadhim Zahawi, and Nadine Dorries switched allegiance to protect their political careers rather than to represent constituents.
With a growing watchlist of potential defectors, many argued that any MP who switches parties should face a by-election, emphasising that voters elect representatives under a specific banner and deserve the chance to reaffirm or reject them.
Readers criticised Reform for taking in hard-right ex-Tories and recycling discredited politicians, saying it undermines the party’s anti-establishment image.
They also highlighted past Conservative failings in public services, social care, and immigration, arguing that with so many ex-Tory MPs, Reform offers little more than a continuation of the same policies.
A small minority suggested the defections might allow the Conservatives to rid themselves of unpopular MPs and regroup.
However, the dominant view was one of cynicism, that Reform is largely a vehicle for political survival, and its MPs cannot be trusted to act in the public interest.
Here’s what you had to say:
A by-election should be called
A by-election should be called: Jenrick stood and won as a Conservative but has since changed allegiance. His majority over Labour has fallen to 3,572 (20,968 votes), while the Reform candidate took 8,280 votes. There should be a rule that any MP who changes party during a Parliament must trigger an automatic by-election.
Reform now full of ex-Tories
Voting Reform is now like voting Tory, with 21 Tories in Reform – either MPs who defected or former Tories wanting to be elected as Reform MPs in the next General Election.
The Tories in Reform did not become MPs to help the hardworking, the elderly, the ones in poverty, the unemployed, the disabled, or the most vulnerable in society. They went into politics for their own ambitions and agendas. They defected to save their own political careers, not because they care about the people of the UK.
Those Tories in Reform, such as Nadhim Zahawi, Robert Jenrick, and Nadine Dorries, were complicit in ruining the UK with the Tories in government for 14 years. Reform is now a political party for those only wanting to remain MPs; they will do nothing for the people of this country except scrounge taxpayers’ money.
An unpleasant surprise
These defectors may get an unpleasant surprise. Reform won’t have all the safe seats they were accustomed to in the Conservative Party. They may have serious fights on their hands. And, of course, Reform’s reputation as a new force diminishes every time some Tory loser turns up.
But it was predictable – and predicted. Farage hasn’t got the people. Trouble is, the people he’s getting aren’t very popular. Jenrick is widely disliked, and Nadine Dorries is a bit of a joke. I think Conservative MPs may soon decide they’re safer where they are.
Reform’s anti-establishment image compromised
The more Tories that join Reform, the harder it is for Reform UK Plc to maintain the pretence that they are anti-establishment, fighting political cronyism and elites.
Let’s be honest: Reform UK are now nothing other than a recycling of taxidermists – a mixture of failures and con artists who haven’t once apologised for their contribution to the Tories’ corrupt path to their graveyard. Yet they jump out without a second thought for their party or their country, straight into the arms of its Thatcherite leader, who was also once a Tory advertising in the Daily Mail that Truss’s budget was “the best Conservative budget since 1986”.
How such grifters can attract any support at all is totally beyond me.
They should have resigned
If these MPs were honourable men and women, they would do the decent thing: resign, trigger a by-election, and let constituents decide whether they want a Reform or Tory MP. They have no right to inflict on voters a choice of a party they may or may not support. Judging by their actions, they are only thinking of themselves and should never be trusted.
Far-right Conservatives
One thing to keep in mind is that Reform are far-right Conservatives, predominantly coming from the Conservative Party, now split away from it.
They are essentially the hard-right Conservatives who caused most damage to the UK during Conservative administrations from 2010 to 2024.
They are the weird Conservatives who had a knack for ineptness – creating more debt, naval-gazing while the nation was sinking, with a revolving door of prime ministers, turning a blind eye to corporate corruption, covering up corporate pollution of UK rivers and coasts, neglecting infrastructure, and playing a violin while health, policing, prisons, the justice system, and social care disintegrated.
Their botched actions on escalating immigration and asylum, coupled with a burgeoning wave of crime – shoplifting, drug gangs, violence – growing poverty, homelessness, and child hunger, created social breakdown and anarchy.
Their incompetence was literally creating social chaos.
The conundrum of Farage and ex-Tories
This is all a bit of a conundrum:
Farage has disparaged the Tories for years and insulted some individuals, yet he welcomes rejects and 'have-beens' with open arms.
Some Tories have responded in kind, yet some are on a 'probable defection' list.
Is there a very strong and persistent pong of lies, trickery, and abuse of the voters?
Asking for a friend, of course…
Tory baggage
Why would anyone vote Reform now? Reform are the old Tories we kicked out 18 months ago.
Do they really think the public will ever forget and forgive the mess they left behind?
One and the same
Yet here in Wales, Reform supporters keep parroting that a vote for Plaid Cymru is a vote for Labour because they're “one and the same”. When you point out to them that that scenario is certainly the case with Reform and the Tories, because of the number of ex-Tories in Reform ranks, the silence is deafening!
The Tories can ‘reform’
Well, if you look back 5–7 years, with BoJo and the ensuing circus, a lot of "mainstream" Conservatives were pushed out and replaced by muppet populists.
Surely it is a good thing if these muppets now move on to Reform, so that the Tories can reform (pun intended), and hopefully come back as a more sane party, whilst Reform can try to house these oddballs best they can.
A fool to accept them
Reform is fast becoming the least acceptable part of the Tory Party. They are no longer a new, fresh, and different political entity. Farage is a fool to accept them.
Some of the comments have been edited for this article for brevity and clarity.
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