Former Tory chairman Sir Jake Berry defects to Nigel Farage's Reform UK

Sir Jake Berry, a former leading Conservative, has announced that he has defected to Reform UK – in the latest move by a senior Tory to Nigel Farage’s party.

Sir Jake, who served as Tory chairman in Liz Truss’ short-lived government, said his former party had “lost their way” as he left the Conservatives. Speaking to The Sun newspaper, the new Reform member added: “Old Westminster politics has failed... Millions of people, just like me, want a country they can be proud of again. The only way we get that is with Reform in government.”

Sir Jake is the second former Cabinet minister in a week to join Reform, after ex-Welsh secretary David Jones announced he enrolled as a member.

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A Labour Party spokesperson said: “Not content with taking advice from Liz Truss, Nigel Farage has now tempted her Tory Party Chairman into his ranks.

"It’s clear Farage wants Liz Truss’s reckless economics, which crashed our economy and sent mortgages spiralling, to be Reform’s blueprint for Britain. It’s a recipe for disaster and working people would be left paying the price.”

Other ex-Tories who have joined Reform include Marco Longhi, Anne Marie Morris, Ross Thomson, Aiden Burley and Dame Andrea Jenkyns, now the mayor of Greater Lincolnshire.

The former MP for Rossendale and Darwen lost his seat in the 2024 general election to Labour’s Andy MacNae, who had a majority of 6,000 over Sir Jake.

Mr MacNae won with 18,246 votes to Sir Jake’s 12,619. Reform’s candidate Daniel Matchett followed in a close third with 9,695 votes. Since his loss, Sir Jake has worked in broadcasting, hosting a show on Talk TV.

Before serving in Ms Truss’s government, he was a minister during both Boris Johnson and Theresa May’s premierships, with responsibilities focused on the Northern Powerhouse and levelling up.

In a video published alongside the Sun’s reporting, Sir Jake spoke of his time in government. After claiming that “Britain is broken”, he added: “I know who broke it because I was there.

“For 30 years I supported the Conservative Party, for 14 years I was one of their MPs, sitting at that Cabinet table twice.

“I want to tell you today my friends that I have come to a decision. The old parties do not have what it takes to transform our country, to build a Britain we can believe in again, and that’s why I’ve decided to join the Reform Party.”

Sir Jake, who opposed Brexit ahead of the 2016 referendum, commended his new party leader Mr Farage for having “always stuck by his principles, even when it was unpopular”.

Mr Farage “doesn’t change his views, when the political weather changes”, Sir Jake said, adding: “Because you know you can trust him, I can trust him too and that’s why I’m going to spend every day campaigning to ensure that Nigel Farage and Reform form the next government of this great United Kingdom.”