Former Conservative MP Dorries defects to Reform

Former Conservative minister Nadine Dorris has declared “the Tory party is dead” as she announced that she has defected to Reform UK.

- REBECCA WHITTAKER

The former culture secretary, who was MP for Mid-Bedfordshire from 2005 to 2023, revealed her decision in her column for the Daily Mail.

"The time for action is now and I believe that the only politician who has the answers, the knowledge and the will to deliver is Nigel Farage. Nigel and I will never agree about everything.

Neither of us are political robots," she wrote.

"But on the issues of law and order, immigration, the need to drastically cut public spending and boost growth and to support Ukraine, I am 100 per cent behind Nigel. When we disagree, it will be in private," she added.

Ms Dorries, announcing her decision, also said that “it’s time for change” and “time make Britain great again”, declaring the Tory Party “dead”.

She wrote: “My decision to leave the party I’ve served for more than 30 years is possibly the most difficult I’ve ever had to make, and it has taken me 12 agonising months to reach.”

It comes a day before the Reform UK party conference begins.

Ms Dorries, 68, is the highest profile Tory to join Reform after defections from former party chair Sir Jake Berry, former Wales secretary David Jones and Dame Andrea Jenkyns.