Tory defectors to Reform ‘may be start of bandwagon effect’
A SENIOR member of the Conservative Party has defected to the Right-wing party Reform UK, amid signs of frustration with the direction of Rishi Sunak’s leadership.
There are fears now of further defections with Richard Tice, Reform’s leader, telling The Daily Telegraph that conversations are continuing “across the board” with councillors and Tory MPS about joining his party.
Councillor David White last night resigned as the South Yorkshire area chairman for the Conservative Party and will fight to become an MP for Reform UK in Barnsley at the next election. Mr White – who serves on Barnsley metropolitan borough council – was a member of the party since 2003.
Mr White said: “The Conservative Party has changed, with them being unable or unwilling to make the big decisions. I am convinced that they are not in tune with the working people here in Barnsley and across the UK”.
He went on to say: “Reform UK dares to say what people are thinking, and finally we now have a party that offers credible alternative solutions to the significant problems that we face”.
‘The Conservative Party has changed, with them being unable or unwilling to make the big decisions’
Reform UK emerged from the ashes of the Brexit Party, set up by Nigel Farage, the former UK Independence Party leader, after the 2019 European Parliament elections.
Separately, Richard Langridge, an independent district councillor on West Oxfordshire district council, said he will stand for Reform UK in his home constituency of Witney, Oxfordshire in the next general election.
Alongside representing a ward in the area, Mr Langridge served as the con- stituency chairman for the Conservative Party and acted as agent for former David Cameron, the Prime Minister.
Mr Langridge was a Conservative member for more than 20 years before quitting to become an independent.
He stood as a Reform UK candidate at the May 2021 local elections.
He said “I have represented the Conservative Party throughout my political career, both whilst serving on the Cabinet at the district council, as well as at county level. However, the Conservatives have totally lost their way and are now unrecognisable as the party I have supported all my life.”
Luke Tryl, UK director of the More in Common think tank, told today’s Chopper’s Politics Podcast that the defections by councillors “could be the start of that bandwagon effect”.