Nigel Farage has welcomed Nadine Dorries‘ move to Reform as a ‘big signing’ – and said it shows the Tory Party is ‘beginning to disintegrate before your eyes’.
After months of secret negotiations, former Conservative Culture Secretary Ms Dorries is joining forces with the Reform UK leader as he plots a path to Downing Street, it was revealed yesterday – as she told the Mail ‘the Tory Party is dead’.
Mr Farage celebrated the decision on Thursday night, calling Ms Dorries ‘a significant addition to [the] team’.
‘From this time last year, we had a handful of branches – we’ve now got 450. We’ve won the elections on May 1. We’re publishing policy papers. And the team of people is building and Nadine is a significant addition to that team,’ he said.
‘Because while it’s wonderful to get people from outside politics – and I want to do more of that – we also need people with experience who have been in government and understand how the system works. That’s why Nadine is a big signing for us.’
He added: ‘She’s been there, she knows the problems. She crosses the line from being just a politician into celebrity – she’s been in the jungle like me, she sold 3.5 million books, she’s an accomplished columnist on the Daily Mail and this shows that the Conservative Party is beginning to disintegrate before your eyes.’
Ms Dorries explained the reasons for her bombshell decision in an exclusive article for Mail+ yesterday.
Nigel Farage has claimed Nadine Dorries defecting to Reform shows the Tory Party is ‘beginning to disintegrate before your eyes’
Former Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries is sensationally defecting to Reform
Ms Dorries, interviewed here by Glen Owen, Political Editor for the Mail on Sunday, has declared the Tory party ‘dead’ and said its members need to ‘think the unthinkable’
Mr Farage, pictured in the Oval Office this week, described Ms Dorries’ defection as a ‘great boost’ in his bid to win the next General Election
She told the Mail: ‘The Tory Party is dead. Its members now need to think the unthinkable and look to the future.’
Mr Farage said last night: ‘I am absolutely delighted to welcome Nadine Dorries to Reform UK. She is a hugely successful politician, author and columnist and will be a great boost to our campaign to win the next General Election.’
Ms Dorries’ defection after three decades as a party member comes ahead of the start of Reform’s annual conference in Birmingham tomorrow, where she will deliver the opening speech.
The defection is Mr Farage’s most spectacular political coup yet, and comes at the end of a summer in which he dominated the political agenda.
While Labour ministers were sunning themselves on holiday, Mr Farage was pummelling the Government with attacks on its immigration policy – with Reform soaring to a 15-point lead in the polls as a result.
The move by Ms Dorries – who spent 18 years as a Tory MP and is now a best-selling novelist and Daily Mail columnist – will help to counter criticism that Reform is just a one-man band. Even senior figures in Reform have conceded that, as things stand, Mr Farage would struggle to fill the seats around the Cabinet table with ministers of sufficient experience and ability.
During the clandestine talks, which concluded with meetings between Mr Farage and Ms Dorries in Robin Birley’s exclusive 5 Hertford Street members’ club in Mayfair, it is understood that he did not guarantee her a job in a future Reform administration.
However, Ms Dorries, 68, has not ruled out a return to the Commons: her rags-to-riches journey from a Liverpool council estate to the centre of power in Westminster, combined with her pro-Brexit and anti-immigration views, would send her to the top of the party’s selection list.
With Reform now consistently ahead in the polls by a margin which puts Mr Farage within touching distance of No 10, many Tory MPs believe that some form of pact between the parties is becoming inevitable.
While Mrs Badenoch has ruled out any form of agreement, Tory frontbencher Robert Jenrick – the current favourite to succeed her – is prepared to do business with Reform.
Ms Dorries, pictured in Downing Street, quit as an MP in 2023
Ms Dorries with former prime minister Boris Johnson campaigning in 2019
Mr Farage privately oscillates between a determination to go it alone and a grudging acceptance of the need to forge selective alliances with like-minded Tory candidates.
Friends of Ms Dorries say that she has made her dramatic move now because she thinks the creaking Labour Government could fall within two years, and that Mrs Badenoch would not be in a position to win a General Election.
She is expected to use her influence on Mr Farage to urge him to reach an agreement with Right-wing Tory candidates, similar to the 2019 pact in which he stood down his Brexit Party candidates in order to avoid splitting the Right-wing vote and stopping a Labour Government from reversing Brexit: however, Mr Farage was burned by that experience, arguing that Boris then ‘betrayed Brexit’.
Ms Dorries is a close ally of Mr Johnson, and publicly predicted his ascent to Downing Street years before it happened. Her defection will be seen as a sign that she has given up hope that he will return to the Tory Party – and now thinks that Mr Farage is heading for No 10.
A Conservative friend of Ms Dorries said last night: ‘The ravens are leaving the tower.’
