Former Conservatives who have joined Reform UK were “never Conservatives to begin with”, Kemi Badenoch has said.
The Tory leader made the claim following the latest defection – former Conservative Party chairman Jake Berry, who announced he was joining Nigel Farage’s political party on Wednesday night.
Sir Jake said his former Conservative colleagues had “lost their way” as he revealed the move.
Mrs Badenoch was asked by the PA news agency about the defection – the latest in a string of such moves – as she visited Stansted Airport on Friday.
“These are former MPs who do not like the direction the party is going, because we are becoming more Conservative,” she said.
Comparing her platform and Reform UK’s, Mrs Badenoch said: “I have said that we’ve got to bring the welfare budget down, Nigel Farage is talking about more and more welfare.
“I have said that we need to live within our means, Nigel Farage wants to spend billions on nationalisation.”
She added: “So if there are people who call themselves Conservatives, who like that policy platform, my view is that they were never Conservatives to begin with.
“We need to be the authentic, centre-right Conservative Party, and if people don’t like personal responsibility, living within our means, strong borders and making sure that we don’t bankrupt ourselves on net zero, then we don’t mind if they go to Nigel Farage’s party.”
Sir Jake was the latest in a line of Tory defectors, joining former Wales secretary David Jones, former minister Dame Andrea Jenkyns and others in jumping ship to Reform.
The defections have raised questions over whether politicians on the right regard Mr Farage’s party as a better bet for election than the Conservatives.
Earlier in the week, Mrs Badenoch accused those leaving her party of behaving “like they do in banana republics”.
On Thursday, she said politicians such as Sir Jake had “probably been holding us back for a long time” and were “welcome” to leave.
The Tory leader said: “There are a lot of people who come into politics just to play the game of politics, and they will follow polls and defect wherever they can, like they do in banana republics, to wherever they think that they can win.”
