A FORMER Tory chairman has announced his defection to Reform UK.
Jake Berry, former Conservative chairman under Liz Truss, is the latest to jump ship to Reform in the latest blow to the Tories, making him the second ex-Cabinet minister to do so within a week.
Writing in an op-ed in The Sun, Berry claimed the “only way” to have a “country we can be proud of again” is through a Reform government.
He wrote: “If you were deliberately trying to wreck the country, you’d be hard-pressed to do a better job than the last two decades of Labour and Tory rule.
“Some people are giving up. Not me. I’m staying. And I’m fighting.
“Fighting for the Britain I want my kids, and one day, my grandkids, to grow up in.
“Not a Britain in decline, but a Britain that believes in itself again.
“Old Westminster politics has failed. But there’s a better way. 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.
“That’s why I’ve resigned from the Conservative Party. I’m now backing Reform UK and working to make them the next party of government.
“Why? Because I’ve always believed that change comes with challenging the old order. In shaking up the system when it isn’t working.”
Berry is the second former Cabinet minister in a week to join Reform after ex-Welsh secretary David Jones recently announced he had enrolled as a member.
Other former Conservatives who have joined Reform include Marco Longhi, Anne Marie Morris, Ross Thomson, Aiden Burley, and 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 secured a majority of 6000.
MacNae won with 18,246 votes, ahead of Berry on 12,619.
Since losing his seat, Berry has moved into broadcasting, hosting a show on right-wing news channel Talk TV.
Before serving in Liz Truss’s government, he held ministerial roles under both Boris Johnson and Theresa May.
In a video published alongside his op-ed, Berry claimed that "Britain is broken", saying: “I know who broke it because I was there.”
He continued: “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.”
