Marco Longhi, the former Conservative MP for Dudley North, has joined Nigel Farage’s Reform Party UK, after accusing his old party of being “caught in the grip of left-wing influence masquerading as conservatism”.
He is the third former Tory MP to defect from the UK Reform Party since last year’s general election, after Aidan Burley and Dame Andrea Jenkins.
Longhi, who lost his seat in July, claimed the Conservative Party he once belonged to had become “unrecognizable” and said he could no longer stand by the “unilateral drift” towards a “left-wing agenda”. He pledged that, if re-elected, he would remain loyal “to the people”, not to the party leadership.
His defection coincides with a new “mega poll” by Stonehaven, based on 17,000 voters, which suggests the UK Reform Party would gain up to 120 seats if a general election were held today. It also indicates that Labor will fall from its current number of seats from 411 to 278, while the number of Conservative Party seats will rise to 157 seats from 121. Although the UK Reform Party only has five MPs at the moment, the poll indicates Its strongest gains could come in East Anglia, Essex and many other areas. The so-called Red Wall in northern England.
Other former Conservative figures have gravitated towards Farage’s party, including Nick Candy, the billionaire trustee of Reform Britain, and Tim Montgomery, founder of the ConservativeHome website. Rael Braverman, the husband of former Interior Secretary Suella Braverman, also recently defected, though she rejected any suggestions she might follow suit.