Ukip defector: The party’s over, join the Tories
A FORMER senior member of Ukip has urged his ex-party colleagues to join him in defecting to the Tories.
Peter Harris, the candidate for one of Ukip’s top two target seats in last year’s election and the party’s regional organiser for London, last week became the most senior figure to quit and join the Tories.
As Ukip members today meet in a special conference to decide whether to ditch their beleaguered leader Henry Bolton, Mr Harris warned that the party is “finished”.
He now wants his former party colleagues to help Jacob Rees-Mogg and grassroots Tories win the fight for a proper Brexit.
The former Dagenham parliamentary candidate said: “The Tory grassroots members are absolutely 100 per cent behind a real Brexit.
“My principles have not changed. I have not changed what I believe. My task is to get back our laws, control of our borders and our money.”
But he went on: “What has changed is the mechanism. I no longer believe Ukip is the way to achieve that.
“I now believe that by joining the Conservative Party and like-minded people in it we will be able to achieve more, because after all the Conservative Party is in Government.”
And he said he agreed with Ukip’s former major backer Arron Banks, who recognised that with the Tory membership at an all-time low of 70,000 “the arrival of 20,000 Ukip members could make a real impact”.
The businessman said that his “lightbulb moment” to enter active politics for Ukip was hearing Nigel Farage. But he said he had another one after hearing Mr Rees-Mogg, who he names along with other senior Tory backbenchers Bernard Jenkin, Peter Bone and Andrew Rosindell, as MPs he “hugely admires”.
On Mr Rees-Mogg he added: “The man is certainly speaking up for a lot of people in this country.
“It is remarkable the effect he is having on the enthusiasm for people to support the Conservative Party.”
Urged
But Brexit is not Mr Harris’s only motivation, after fighting hard Left Labour “on the front line”. He said there was a “clear and present danger of Momentum threatening to become the next government”.
He said: “It would set this country back decades and threaten Brexit.
“Having a strong Conservative government is the only way to keep Corbyn and Momentum out.” Mr Harris also revealed that senior Ukip members had urged him to stay, including general secretary Paul Oakley and Welsh leader Neil Hamilton, but he admitted he had been “very restless with Ukip for a long time” before deciding to quit.
He said: “I was there when Nigel resigned and my jaw hit the floor. I was shocked, hugely disappointed.
“At a time when our credibility was at its highest, and we had just achieved the ultimate goal, instead of signalling advance and building upon success we signalled retreat.
“From that moment we went on this self-destruction mode, to a point now where we have a leader in Henry Bolton that is beyond a joke.
“What I hear from voters is Ukip has lost all credibility. It has become a party they cannot take seriously and cannot vote for. Ukip’s time as a mainstream party is over.”