Three former Conservative MPs have defected to Reform UK, in a fresh blow to Kemi Badenoch’s leadership as Nigel Farage’s party steps up its bid to become the dominant force on the right of British politics.
Jonathan Gullis, Lia Nici and Chris Green – who all lost their seats at the 2024 general election – have formally joined Reform, the party confirmed on Monday. While the move does not change the arithmetic in the House of Commons, it underscores a continuing drift of disillusioned Conservatives towards Farage’s party at a time when national polls frequently put Reform ahead of both Labour and the Tories.
Gullis, the former MP for Stoke‑on‑Trent North and a past Conservative deputy chairman, announced his decision in a Facebook post, ending what he described as an 18‑year association with the party. Nici represented Great Grimsby, later Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes, and Green was MP for Bolton West; all three saw their formerly Conservative “red wall” seats return to Labour last year, often with Reform pushing hard locally.
In his statement, Gullis said he had watched “a party I once believed in lose touch with the people it was meant to serve”, accusing the Conservatives of failing to control “both legal and illegal migration” and pursuing a net zero agenda that had driven up household energy costs and threatened jobs in Stoke‑on‑Trent’s ceramics industry. As a result, he said, the party had “understandably lost the trust of the British people”.
“Leaving the Conservative Party after 18 years is not a decision I have taken lightly,” he wrote, arguing that Britain faces “serious and deep‑rooted challenges” and claiming “only Reform UK has the vision and courage needed to restore pride in Britain and deliver real change”. He praised Farage for showing “the courage of his convictions” and backing “bold and radical reforms” which he said the country now required.
Gullis, who is currently Mayor of Kidsgrove, joins a growing Reform operation in and around Stoke‑on‑Trent, where former Conservative council leader Daniel Jellyman defected last month and now leads the city council for Reform. Local Reform figures hailed Gullis’s move as a “huge boost” in an area that has become a key target for the party after years of economic decline and political volatility.
Nici and Green have not yet issued lengthy public statements, but both have long been identified with the Conservative right. Nici, a prominent supporter of Boris Johnson and a vocal Brexiteer, had previously described herself as “more Reform than Reform” when criticising Conservative policy under Rishi Sunak, even as she warned at the time that voting Reform risked letting Labour in. Green, who represented Bolton West for nine years, was known for his scepticism about Covid lockdowns and his hard line on crime and immigration. Press reports say he now believes the Conservatives no longer offer a credible right‑of‑centre programme, and that Reform is better placed to “correct Britain’s systemic failures”.
A Reform source said the three had joined “of their own accord online” via the party’s membership system and cast the defections as proof that the political right is realigning around Farage. “The Conservative Party is dead. Only Reform can beat Labour at the next election as the polls show time and time again,” the source said.
Badenoch and Conservative Campaign Headquarters had not issued a fresh on‑the‑record response by Monday afternoon, but the defections come against the backdrop of repeated clashes between the Tory leadership and ex‑colleagues who have crossed to Reform. In July, Badenoch said that Conservatives who “want to jump ship” to Farage’s party were “welcome to do so” and accused defectors of “jumping around because they’re jumping around polls”, insisting they were “not people who can deal with tough times”. She has repeatedly argued that the Conservatives remain “the only serious, credible alternative” to Labour and “the only party of fiscal responsibility”, accusing Reform of advocating higher welfare spending and nationalisation.
Today’s move adds three more names to a growing list of former Tory MPs, ministers, donors and councillors who have moved to Reform since the 2024 election, including former cabinet minister Nadine Dorries and several ex‑backbenchers from the party’s right. In September, serving MP Danny Kruger defected from the Conservatives to Reform, declaring “the Conservative Party is over” and taking on a senior role preparing what Farage has called a “government‑in‑waiting”.
Reform is seeking to turn that rhetoric into electoral reality. The party won 14.3% of the vote and five seats at the 2024 general election, finishing third in the national popular vote but a distant fifth in Commons representation under first past the post. Subsequent opinion polls through 2025 have regularly shown Reform leading nationwide, with some surveys placing the Conservatives in third or even fourth place, and at least one major MRP projection suggesting Reform could secure a parliamentary majority if an election were held on current numbers.
Although Gullis, Nici and Green do not bring additional seats with them, their decision highlights the Conservatives’ struggle to hold together the electoral coalition that delivered Boris Johnson’s landslide in 2019. All three once symbolised the party’s advance into traditionally Labour‑held, working‑class constituencies; their shift to Reform gives Farage fresh ammunition as he seeks to present his party as the natural home for voters – and politicians – who feel the Conservatives have abandoned that project.
Attention at Westminster will now turn to whether further sitting Conservative MPs follow Kruger’s lead, and to how far Reform can convert its polling surge and growing cadre of ex‑Tory figures into sustained local and national power.