Former Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns joins Reform UK

Former Conservative MP Dame Andrea Jenkyns has joined Reform UK and will stand as the party's candidate to be mayor of Greater Lincolnshire in May 2025.

Dame Andrea, who lost her seat in the July general election, said she had "fought to the bitter end" but the Conservative Party was now "beyond salvage".

She said Reform UK were "patriotic bravehearts" who would "deliver the fresh start this country so desperately needs".

Dame Andrea had represented Morley and Outwood for the Conservatives between 2015 and 2024 but lost the new seat of Leeds South West and Morley in the general election earlier this year.

Her decision to leave the Tories came as the Reform UK's leader Nigel Farage said his party's membership had exceeded 100,000.

He said the party was now focused on the English county council elections in May next year, including plans to field 2,200 candidates.

He added that Reform would need to win "hundreds of seats" at the elections to be on course for what they hoped to achieve in 2025.

Reform UK, originally called the Brexit Party when it was set up in 2018, had a successful general election.

Although the party won only five parliamentary seats, it secured more than four million votes overall, coming third behind Labour and the Conservatives.

Asked how long she had been thinking about leaving the Conservatives, Dame Andrea said she had "always respected" Farage and had felt "politically aligned" with the party.

"I was tempted before the general election, but I am a loyal person to a party.

"I might not be loyal to prime ministers, as we've seen in the past, but I'm loyal to parties, and I believed, as I said, in going down with that ship fighting.

"I was elected as a Conservative, and I got knocked out as a Conservative, but I feel, unfortunately, the party has become tired."

Dame Andrea had long made clear her sympathies with Reform UK, previously urging the Conservatives to unite with the party to prevent a Labour "supermajority".

She also included a picture of herself with Farage on her campaign leaflet in the general election.

Last year, she publicly called on Rishi Sunak, her then leader, to step down as prime minister.

She had been a strong supporter of Boris Johnson and served as an assistant whip and junior education minister in his government.

Shortly before Dame Andrea’s announcement, Reform UK’s former deputy leader Ben Habib said he was leaving the party citing “fundamental differences” with Farage over Brexit as well as the structure of the party.

He also said he had "ideological issues" on migration - specifically that, unlike Farage, he backed "mass deportations".

Speaking at a news conference announcing Dame Andrea's decision, Farage said he was hoping to learn lessons from Donald Trump's successful bid to return to the White House.

He said Trump's campaign this year had been more professional than in 2016, and that he would be trying to copy the approach with Reform UK.

He also noted that the Trump campaign involved other big names, including Robert F Kennedy and Elon Musk.

"That's what I want to do with Reform - we're not going to be a one-man band," he said.

In a later interview, Farage criticised some of Reform's candidates in the general election, saying there were "a couple of dozen candidates who caused us huge embarrassment - they were unsuited for public office in every way".

He added that these were "teething problems" and said the party's candidates for the local elections next year would be "more vigorously" vetted.

Asked how he felt about one of his MPs, James McMurdock having a conviction for assaulting his girlfriend when he was 19, Farage said it was “not great, I’m not happy about it”.

However, he added that “maybe there’s a story of genuine rehabilitation".