By Eniola Amadu
Another senior Conservative has defected to Reform UK, with former health minister Maria Caulfield revealing she joined Nigel Farage’s party last month.
Although no longer an MP after losing her Lewes seat to the Liberal Democrats in 2024, Caulfield’s move comes just a day after Danny Kruger, the Tory MP for East Wiltshire and shadow work and pensions minister, announced his defection.
Caulfield, who served as a junior health minister, women’s minister and Conservative vice-chair during her nine years in parliament, said she had become disillusioned with her former party.
Speaking to GB News, she said: “I have joined. My husband joined a few months ago and I joined a month ago. I am sad for the Conservative party. I could see that I have not changed but the party has become less and less what I believe in.”
She argued the Conservatives had failed to deliver on the promises of Brexit, saying: “We took back control but we did not do anything about it. Reform is about changing the system – they won’t change unless they do it differently.”
Caulfield suggested she might seek to return to parliament under Reform’s banner, though said she had not yet made a decision.
Tory leadership response
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch acknowledged the defections were a setback, telling GB News: “Every leader regrets losing people to another party.”
She suggested further departures could follow, particularly from those unhappy with her focus on reducing welfare spending and ending “lavish spending”. Badenoch added: “When a party has just had a historic defeat, we will have a very tough and bumpy time before we come back up again.”
Reform’s strategy
Reform has attracted several former Conservatives in recent months, though Kruger remains the only current MP to have switched sides.
The party has been cautious about welcoming too many ex-Tories, wary of being perceived as a “retirement home” for defeated MPs.
However, Farage’s team recognises the value of former ministers in providing governing experience.
Kruger, a former political secretary to Boris Johnson, was unveiled at a press conference on Monday as Reform’s new head of “preparing for government”.
Announcing his decision, he declared: “The Conservative party is over. Over as a national party, over as the principal opposition to the left.”
Meanwhile, Kruger criticised the Conservative Party’s strategy but did not blame Badenoch personally, praising her “courage and resilience” in tough times. He said the party had failed to stand firmly by its principles.
“I’m not just rejecting the Conservatives,” he said. “I’m actually enthusiastically backing Nigel Farage and the Reform party, who I think have become a real, serious party of opposition.”
