Sir Jake Berry, former Conservative MP and party chairman, has announced his defection to Reform UK.
Writing in The Sun, Sir Jake stated: “Old Westminster politics has failed. But there’s a better way.”
He explained his support for Reform UK “because I’ve always believed that change comes with challenging the old order. In shaking up the system when it isn’t working.”
In response, a Conservative Party spokesman commented: “We wish Jake well in his new high spend, high tax party.”
The spokesman added: “Reform support increasing the benefits bill by removing the two-child cap, and nationalising British industry.
“By contrast the Conservatives, under new leadership, will keep making the case for sound money, lower taxes and bringing the welfare bill under control.”
Sir Jake is the second former Conservative Cabinet minister this week to announce joining Nigel Farage’s party. On Monday, former Welsh Secretary Sir David Jones revealed he had defected to Reform UK earlier this year.
Sir Jake becomes the fourth former Conservative MP to switch to Reform in the last two weeks, after Sir David, Ross Thomson and Anne Marie Morris.
Sir Jake represented the Rossendale and Darwen constituency in Lancashire from 2010 until 2024, when he lost his seat to Labour.
During his tenure in Parliament, he was a close associate of Boris Johnson and held positions in the Cabinet Office and as Northern Powerhouse minister.
He was appointed Conservative Party chairman by Liz Truss during her brief premiership.
In a statement regarding his decision, Sir Jake criticized both the Conservative Party and Labour.
“For 25 years, I was proud to call myself a Conservative – 14 of those years, I served as an MP. I even sat at the Cabinet table twice. I believed in it. I gave it everything.”
“But let’s not kid ourselves. Britain is broken. It didn’t start with Labour. The Conservative governments I was part of share the blame.”
“We now have a tax system that punishes hard work and ambition. Just this week, we saw record numbers of our brightest and best people leaving Britain because they can’t see a future here. At the same time, our benefits system is pulling in the world’s poor with no plan for integration and no control over who comes in.”
Sources within both Reform and the Conservatives suggest that further defections may occur.
Senior Conservatives have accused Reform of attracting former MPs while losing current ones.
Since last year’s general election, two of Reform’s MPs have left the party, Rupert Lowe and James McMurdock.
Nevertheless, Sir Jake’s defection highlights Reform’s growing political momentum, a trend underscored by Labour’s increased focus on the party, diverting attention from the Conservatives.
In response to the defection, a Labour spokesperson stated: “Not content with taking advice from Liz Truss, Nigel Farage has now tempted her Tory Party Chairman into his ranks.”
“It’s clear Farage wants Liz Truss’s reckless economics, which crashed our economy and sent mortgages spiralling, to be Reform’s blueprint for Britain.”
Tim Montgomerie, another Conservative backer who switched to Reform, told the BBC’s Newsnight programme that Sir Jake was “one of the most efficient organisers in the Conservative Party – exactly what my new party needs.”
“It is not the most well-organised party at the moment,” he added.
He suggested that “bigger” defections were forthcoming that would “rock the Conservative Party”.
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