Former shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick has become the latest in a long line of Tory politicians to defect to Nigel Farage’s insurgent party.
Reform UK has attracted more than 20 former Conservative MPs, leading the Tories to argue that his party is full of “has-been politicians looking for their next gravy train”.
Despite the growing number of disillusioned ex-Conservatives joining ranks, Farage insists “we are not the Tory Party 2.0”.
From the first to break ranks – Lee Anderson – to their most high-profile gets yet of Jenrick and Nadhim Zahawi, ITV News takes a look at all the politicians who’ve jumped ship to Reform.
Robert Jenrick
Farage welcomed Jenrick to his party in a chaotic press conference that saw the former shadow justice secretary absent as he was called to the stage.
After an awkward wait that left Farage cracking jokes alone, Jenrick said the Tories “don’t have the stomach for the radical change this country needs” after he was sacked hours earlier by Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch.
Jenrick and Farage have exchanged curt words about one another in the past – including as recently as mid-last year when the Reform leader used Jenrick’s infamous nickname of “Robert Generic” and called him “formerly a man that believed in nothing”.
Earlier last year, Jenrick told of his ambition to “put Reform out of business” and send Farage “back to retirement”.
The Newark MP, who had run to become Tory Party leader, said he would not resign to force a by-election in his Commons seat after switching parties.
Badenoch announced she had fired Jenrick on Thursday due to “irrefutable evidence that he was plotting in secret to defect” from the party in a manner as “damaging as possible” to the Tories.
Jenrick, who was first elected to the Commons in 2014, has held a number of senior roles in government and the shadow cabinet, including Housing Secretary under Boris Johnson.
He quit as an immigration minister in 2023, saying the Tories’ Rwanda plan didn’t go far enough, before launching a failed Tory leadership bid.
Nadhim Zahawi
In what was billed as Farage’s biggest political get yet, former Tory chancellor Nadhim Zahawi announced on Monday that he would be joining the ranks as Britain was “drinking at the last chance saloon” and “really does need Nigel Farage as prime minister”.
This is despite condemning previous remarks made by the Reform UK leader as “racist” and comments of which “Goebbels would be proud” – referring to Joseph Goebbels, who was propaganda minister in Nazi Germany. He’d admitted he’d be “frightened to live in a country run by” Farage.
The Reform UK leader himself had accused Zahawi of having no principles as “all he’s interested in is climbing that greasy pole”.
Asked about the change of heart, Zahawi – who was born in Baghdad – said he and Farage would not be sat side by side if the Reform leader had an issue “with people of my colour or my background” who’ve come to the UK and integrated and invested in the country.
Tory sources claim Zahawi’s defection came after he attempted to get a Conservative peerage but was denied several times – but those close to him say this is untrue.
Zahawi served as chancellor in Boris Johnson’s Cabinet and as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster during Liz Truss’s short premiership. He was later sacked by Rishi Sunak as Conservative Party Chairman after he admitted to a £5 million settlement with HMRC over his tax affairs.
Ben Bradley
The former Conservative leader of Nottinghamshire County Council confirmed he joined the party in December 2025, a total of 17 months after losing his Mansfield parliamentary seat in the general election.
Bradley said he’d lost trust in the Conservatives and “I don’t think it’s coming back”, as he confirmed he will be working alongside Richard Tice on Reform UK’s “Doge” (department of government efficiency) campaign – a term coined by the current Trump administration.
“The challenges in Councils – children’s services, social care, fixing roads, regenerating towns – are huge and varied, so I’m excited to be back in a role where I can make a difference,” he said.
“An earthquake is happening in British politics, and I’ve never been one to sit on the sidelines and watch.”
Jonathan Gullis
Gullis, who defected to Reform in December 2025, had been a loyal ally of Boris Johnson, serving as a parliamentary private secretary before he resigned.
This is despite saying the year before that there was “not a cat’s chance in hell” of joining Farage’s party following fellow ex-Tory MP Lee Anderson’s move.
The former MP lost his Stoke-On-Trent North seat in the 2024 General Election, after which he said he couldn’t find a job after leaving politics. He’d tried to go back to teaching but said the “woke agenda” meant there were “too many activists in the classroom”.
Lia Nici
The former Tory MP for Great Grimbsy, who lost her seat in the general election, confirmed alongside Gullis and Chris Green in December that she’d be defecting.
She will work as a special advisor to the Reform Mayor of Hull and East Yorkshire, Luke Campbell, a former Olympic boxing champion who became the region’s first elected mayor in May.
Chris Green
Green represented his constituency of Bolton West as a Conservative for nine years before he was ousted in the general election.
He announced in December that he would be quitting his party after seeing a disconnect between what senior Tories said and what they did in practice.
“The obvious one on this is controlling migration, but also things such as levelling up and the Northern Powerhouse. I never had the sense when I was involved that they really had that desire to deliver,” Green said.
He added: “I listen to Reform, and I think they’ve got the answers.”
Sarah Atherton
Former defence minister Sarah Atherton, who spent seven weeks in the Ministry of Defence under former Prime Minister Liz Truss in 2022, announced her defection in October.
She had previously resigned as a parliamentary private secretary to the Foreign Office in 2021 over Tory plans to keep sexual offences against female troops tried within military courts.
Atherton, who served as MP for Wrexham for four years from 2019 to 2024, said the Tories had failed the Armed Forces.
Malcolm Offord
Former Conservative life peer Malcolm Offord defected in December, saying it was his intention to give up his place in the House of Lords to campaign for a seat at Holyrood.
He has now been confirmed as the new leader of Scottish Reform.
The Scottish financier previously served as a Scotland Office minister during the last Conservative government, and was the Scottish Tories’ treasurer at the time of his defection.
Farage said he was “delighted” to welcome Lord Offord to Reform, describing his defection as “a brave and historic act,” adding: “He will take Reform UK Scotland to a new level.”
Danny Kruger
The former Tory MP announced his defection in September, claiming “the Conservative Party is over”.
“The flame is passing from one torch to another,” said the MP for East Wiltshire, describing his decision as “personally painful”.
He was the first sitting Conservative MP and first shadow cabinet member (having been Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary) to join Farage’s party.
Nadine Dorries
Dorries, Boris Johnson’s former culture secretary and staunch loyalist, announced in September she’d joined Reform as she believes the Tories “cannot win the next election”.
“The Conservative Party is dead,” she said.
She stepped down as the Conservative MP for Mid Bedfordshire in 2023 after 18 years in the House of Commons and accused then-prime minister Rishi Sunak of “demeaning his office by opening the gates to whip up a public frenzy” against her.
Dorries was thrust into the limelight in 2012 when she was suspended from the Conservative Party for appearing on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! without informing the chief whip first. She was readmitted to the party in May 2013.
Maria Caulfield
The former Conservative health minister announced her defection in September after failing to hold her Lewes seat in the general election.
Hailing Reform as “the future”, she told GB News: “The same people who thought that Brexit would not happen think that Reform will not happen. They are in for a shock.”
Ross Thomson
The former Scottish Tory MP and MSP, who previously represented Aberdeen South, defected in July. He last represented the constituency in 2019 and did not seek re-election.
David Jones
The former Welsh Secretary announced in July that he was backing Reform UK as the party that now “best represents my views”.
Jones, who served in David Cameron’s government between 2012 and 2014, announced he was joining Nigel Farage’s party after more than 50 years as a Tory.
After losing his cabinet job in the 2014 reshuffle, he went on to become a minister in the Department for Exiting the EU under Theresa May for a year between 2016 and 2017.
He later became deputy chairman of the European Research Group, a Eurosceptic group of Tory MPs.
Graham Simpson
Reform gained its first MSP in Scotland when Graham Simpson defected in August.
The former frontbencher, who was first elected in 2016 and joined the Scottish Tories at the age of 15, said his decision was “an enormous wrench”.
He said: “Too many people feel let down and ignored, they feel the system is against them, that the traditional parties don’t even care about them.”
Sir Jake Berry
The former leading Conservative announced his defection in July.
Sir Jake, who served as Tory chairman in Liz Truss’ short-lived government, said his former party had “lost their way” as he left the Conservatives.
Before serving in Truss’ government, he was a minister during both Boris Johnson and Theresa May’s premierships, with responsibilities focused on the Northern Powerhouse and levelling up.
Anne Marie Morris
The former MP for Newton Abbot announced in July that she will head up the party’s social care policy.
Morris, who represented the Devon constituency of Newton Abbot from 2010 until the general election, said Reform “offers the vision and leadership” that Britain needs.
Morris had the Conservative whip suspended twice during her time in the Commons, including once in 2017 for using racist language, for which she later apologised.
Adam Holloway
Adam Holloway, who represented Gravesham in Kent for 19 years before losing his seat in the general election and served as a government whip under Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, announced his defection in July.
Before entering Parliament, Adam Holloway served in the British Army and worked as a TV journalist.
Marco Longhi
The former Tory MP, who represented Dudley North between 2019 and 2024, defected to Reform in January last year.
He told Reform supporters at a conference: “I am a patriot and I finally feel at home.”
Aidan Burley
The former Tory MP, who was known to have organised an infamous Nazi-themed stag party in France in 2011, announced his defection in December 2024.
Burley was sacked as a ministerial aide when the incident came to light in 2014 following an internal party investigation.
Andrea Jenkyns
Jenkyns, a former Conservative MP, became Greater Lincolnshire’s first ever mayor, with Reform UK gaining a majority of almost 40,000 over the Conservatives.
Describing her former party as “tired”, she claimed to be “politically aligned” with Farage. She defected in November 2024.
A staunch supporter of Brexit and Boris Johnson, Jenkyns had submitted no-confidence letters in both former prime ministers, Theresa May and Rishi Sunak.
Under the Johnson administration, she was appointed assistant whip in September 2021 before becoming an education minister in July 2022.
Lee Anderson
Former Tory MP Lee Anderson defected to Reform UK in March, saying he could not be a member of a party that “stifles free speech”.
In a chaotic press conference – with a flag having to be moved because it was in the way of the speech – Anderson asked a sniggling audience, “who’s laughing?” as he started speaking.
The MP for Ashfield had been suspended from the Conservatives after refusing to apologise for claiming “Islamists” had “got control” of London mayor Sadiq Khan.
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