A former Conservative councillor who defected to Reform UK has said the party has allowed too many Tory “rejects” to join.
Jim O’Neill, leader of the Reform group in Blackpool Council, said the party “starting to feel like the Tories 2.0... but only excepting their rejects” in a now-deleted social media post.
Mr O’Neill, who joined Reform after former leader Richard Tice took over in 2021, said the party “may be morphing into something I didn’t sign up for”, as reported by the BBC.
The Marton ward representative said that he wasn’t “against anybody with any political background joining Reform UK.
“There are some fantastic Conservative MPs and former Conservative MPs who could be, let’s say, ideologically aligned with Reform.”
Mr O’Neill said the social media post was “born of frustration” and he decided to take it down ahead of the party conference as he didn’t want it to look as though he was “attention seeking”, although he stood by what he said, the BBC reported.
“If you’re not prepared to question what’s going on, then you’re probably not the right person to be fulfilling any kind of political office, because you do need to question these things.”
Mr O’Neill refused to say whether he was planning to leave the party, adding: “I want to see what other announcements come out.”
It comes as a number of Conservative figures have defected to Reform UK. Among the latest include Dame Andrea Jenkyns, former Tory party chair Sir Jake Berry and former Wales secretary David Jones.
Former culture secretary Nadine Dorries, an MP for Mid Bedfordshire from 2005 to 2023, revealed her decision to defect in a column for the Daily Mail last week.
“The time for action is now and I believe that the only politician who has the answers, the knowledge and the will to deliver is Nigel Farage. Nigel and I will never agree about everything. Neither of us are political robots,” she wrote.
Ms Dorries also said that “it’s time for change” and “time to make Britain great again”, declaring the Tory party “dead”.
She wrote: “My decision to leave the party I’ve served for more than 30 years is possibly the most difficult I’ve ever had to make, and it has taken me 12 agonising months to reach.”
Ms Dorries, who was born in 1957 in Liverpool and grew up on a council estate, wrote in the Daily Mail: “I have known Nigel Farage for some considerable time, and no one can deny that he believes in what he says because he’s been saying the same thing for more than 30 years.”
Reform UK has been contacted for comment.
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