He stated the occasion greatest displays his views
A former Conservative cupboard minister has introduced he’s now backing Reform UK because the occasion that now “greatest represents my views”.
David Jones, who served as Welsh secretary beneath David Cameron between 2012 and 2014, introduced he was becoming a member of Nigel Farage’s occasion on Monday after greater than 50 years as a Tory. The previous Clwyd West MP described the transfer as “a really tough determination for me” and stated he had written to the Conservatives in October to say he wouldn’t renew his membership, however acquired no reply.
He stated: “I joined the Conservatives all these years in the past as a result of I believed it was the occasion that greatest mirrored my values and beliefs. Regrettably, that’s not the case.
“In the present day, Reform UK is the occasion that greatest represents my views – and, I consider, these of many others who’ve grow to be disillusioned with the 2 outdated main events.”
After shedding his cupboard job within the 2014 reshuffle, he went on to grow to be a minister within the Division for Exiting the EU beneath Theresa Could for a yr between 2016 and 2017.
He later turned deputy chairman of the European Analysis Group, a Eurosceptic group of Tory MPs.
Mr Jones, who stood down from Parliament final yr after 19 years as an MP, stated he had no intention of standing for election, and had joined Reform “as a personal particular person”.
However as a former cupboard minister, he’s essentially the most senior ex-Tory MP to hitch Reform thus far, following Marco Longhi, Anne Marie Morris, Ross Thomson, Aiden Burley and Dame Andrea Jenkyns, now the mayor of Better Lincolnshire.
His defection additionally comes as Mr Farage’s occasion seeks to make important features in subsequent yr’s elections on the Senedd in Wales, the place polls counsel the occasion is in second or third place.
It’s a increase for Reform after a tough weekend wherein one in all its 5 MPs “eliminated the occasion whip from himself” amid allegations about two of his companies.
James McMurdock, MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock, insisted “all” of his “enterprise dealings” complied with laws following claims he improperly borrowed cash from the federal government through the pandemic.
