Tory Shadow Minister Andrew Rosindell Defects To Reform UK
2 min read
Sitting MP Andrew Rosindell has left the Conservative Party and defected to Reform UK.
Rosindell, who was serving as a foreign office shadow minister, announced his defection on Sunday evening.
The Romford MP has been a member of the Conservatives since he was 14-years-old and is the second Member of Parliament to join Reform UK this week, following Robert Jenrick’s move to Farage's party on Thursday.
In a statement on X, Rosindell said he believed the Conservative Party was “irreparably bound” to make the same mistakes of previous governments and unwilling to take "meaningful accountability.”
He added: “Our country has endured a generation of managed decline. Radical action is now required to reverse the damaging decisions of the past and to forge a new course for Britain - one that firmly places the interests of the British people first.”
It has been suspected by a number of Tory MPs that the whips were on high alert for Rosindell to eventually defect to Reform UK.
Last week Nigel Farage said no sitting Conservative MP could defect to the party after May 7th, the day of this year's local elections where the Conservatives are braced for massive losses.
Rosindell said he met Farage earlier this evening and subsequently agreed to join the party as its seventh Member of Parliament.
The Tories are on high alert of who will defect to Reform next, with allies of Robert Jenrick such as Katie Lam and Jack Rankin widely tipped to join Farage's party. However, a Conservative aide there was "absolutely no chance" of Lam defecting to Reform, with her being 100 per cent committed to the Conservative Party.
