Nigel Farage has hailed the latest Tory defection (Image: Getty)
The Conservative Party has been hit with a further defection on the eve of their conference in Manchester. Veteran Tory Keith Prince, who represents Havering and Redbridge on the London Assembly, announced his decision to join Nigel Farage’s Reform UK after nearly half a century spent in the Conservatives.
The 67-year-old is now the second Reform member of the London-wide body, alongside Alex Wilson and provides another headache for Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch. In September, highly-regarded Tory MP Danny Kruger left the party for Reform, claiming that it was “over”. In announcing his decision, Prince painted a similar picture, claiming that the party was “done and dusted” and “no longer an effective opposition to this failing Labour Government”.
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Farage hailed the move as “an important moment for the party”. (Image: Councillor Keith Prince A.M/Facebook)
Discussing the defection, Prince said: “Today I join Reform UK after 49 years as a member of the Conservative Party. I am really excited to be a joining a party with a charismatic leader and a vision for a better Britain.”
Mr Farage, who in the wake of Kruger’s defection suggested that more politicians could be set to make the switch, hailed Prince’s move as “an important moment for the party”.
He added: “With Keith’s defection, Reform UK now has an official group on the London Assembly for the first time.
“Our impressive progress in London continues, and we are building our momentum ahead of London’s local elections next May.”
The Conservative Party has plummeted in the polls since last year’s election, while Reform UK has seen its popularity rise. Some polls suggest that leader Nigel Farage is currently the favourite to form the next government and become prime minister.
The Conservative Party announced ahead of its conference in Manchester that it would withdraw the UK from the European Convention on Human Rights if it won the next election in an effort to curb immigration.
The Tories said so-called “lawfare”, including lawyers using the ECHR to halt deportation attempts, had “frustrated the country’s efforts to secure its borders and deport those with no right to be here”.
The move has been called a “cowardly” attempt to “gut this country’s human rights protections” by rights groups.
The traditional centre-right party has also been accused of lurching to the right and mimicking Nigel Farage, who has vowed to quit the ECHR if he enters office.
Prince has been a member of the Conservatives for nearly 50 years (Image: Councillor Keith Prince A.M/Facebook)
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp insisted there was “a massive difference” between his party’s plan and Reform UK’s.
He told BBC Breakfast: “Reform have slogans. They shoot from the hip. They write down slogans on the back of a fag packet. You remember last week Nigel Farage had some announcement, and it fell apart within about 10 minutes because he had forgotten about European Union citizens.
“What we have here is a very, very carefully thought-out position. It’s taken months of legal work. We know exactly what the implications are for things like the Belfast Good Friday Agreement, the Trade and Co-operation Agreement.
“We know exactly how we can then use the freedom outside the ECHR to get control of our borders.”
In response to the pledge to leave the ECHR, a Labour Party spokesperson said: “Kemi Badenoch has adopted a policy she argued against in her own leadership campaign because she is too weak to stand up to her own party in the face of Reform.”
“Badenoch now thinks she is both incapable of negotiating changes to the ECHR with our international partners, and a sufficiently accomplished diplomatic operator to renegotiate the Good Friday Agreement, despite not even knowing some of the most basic facts about Northern Irish politics as recently as yesterday.
“This is a decision that has been forced on her and not thought through.
“While the Tories and Reform fight amongst themselves, this Labour Government is cracking down on people-smuggling gangs, deporting foreign criminals and bringing forward workable and decisive solutions to bring order to Britain’s borders.”
Top Tory Defects to Reform in Huge Blow for Kemi Badenoch
The defection of a senior Conservative figure to Reform UK has intensified pressure on Kemi Badenoch and highlighted the continuing political struggle between the Conservatives and Nigel Farage’s party.
The most significant example came in January 2026, when Robert Jenrick, a former Conservative leadership contender and then shadow justice secretary, left the Conservative Party and joined Reform UK after being dismissed by Badenoch. His move was particularly significant because Jenrick had previously competed against Badenoch for the Conservative leadership in 2024 and had remained one of the party’s most prominent figures.
For Badenoch, the episode represented a difficult moment. The Conservative leader was attempting to establish a united opposition party following the Conservatives’ defeat at the 2024 general election, while Reform was seeking to attract politicians and supporters who believed the Conservatives had failed to respond adequately to Britain’s political challenges.
Jenrick’s departure therefore became more than the loss of one politician. It exposed tensions within the Conservative movement over its future direction, leadership and relationship with Reform.
A dramatic break with the Conservatives
Jenrick’s departure was unusually dramatic.
On the morning of January 15, Badenoch announced that she had removed the Conservative whip from Jenrick and terminated his party membership. She said she had been presented with what she described as “irrefutable evidence” that he had been secretly planning to defect in a manner intended to cause significant damage to the Conservative Party.
Later that day, Jenrick appeared alongside Nigel Farage at a Reform UK press conference and formally announced that he was joining the party.
The former Conservative leadership candidate then delivered a strong criticism of his former party. He argued that the Conservatives had failed to learn from their previous years in government and said he could no longer remain in a party he believed had not changed sufficiently.
Jenrick also rejected the suggestion that his decision was primarily motivated by personal ambition. He said that he had put aside his own political ambitions and believed Reform represented a better vehicle for the political changes he wanted to pursue.
His explanation was disputed by senior Conservatives.
Conservative Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake argued that the move was connected to Jenrick’s political ambitions and said the Conservative Party needed to remain united behind Badenoch. He also called for a by-election in Jenrick’s Newark constituency, although Jenrick decided not to trigger one.
The contrasting explanations demonstrated the political significance of the defection. Jenrick presented it as a matter of political conviction, while Conservative figures interpreted it as evidence of internal ambition and disloyalty.
Why Jenrick’s move mattered
Jenrick was not an ordinary Conservative backbencher.
He had served as a government minister, became shadow justice secretary under Badenoch and had previously stood for the Conservative leadership. That background made his departure particularly notable.
The Guardian described him as the most senior Tory to have switched to Reform at that point. His decision also followed earlier defections by other former Conservative politicians, including former Cabinet ministers.
Sky News subsequently documented a growing list of former Conservative MPs who had moved to Reform since 2024. The pattern demonstrated that the competition between the two parties was not limited to voters and opinion polls; it was also affecting politicians who had previously belonged to the Conservative movement.
For Reform, recruiting established Conservative politicians offered an opportunity to demonstrate that the party was capable of attracting people with experience of government.
Farage openly acknowledged the importance of experienced politicians. At the press conference following Jenrick’s defection, he argued that Reform would need people with political and governmental experience if it were eventually to enter government.
For the Conservatives, however, the same development raised questions about retaining prominent politicians who had once seen the party as their natural political home.
Badenoch’s leadership under pressure
The timing was important for Badenoch.
She became Conservative leader in November 2024 after defeating Jenrick in the leadership contest. Her task was to rebuild a party that had suffered a major electoral defeat and had been reduced to a much smaller parliamentary presence.
The emergence of Reform as a serious competitor made that task more complicated.
Badenoch needed to differentiate the Conservatives from Reform while also competing for voters who had previously supported the Conservatives but had become attracted to Farage’s party.
The Jenrick episode brought that challenge directly into the Conservative parliamentary group.
Badenoch’s decision to remove Jenrick’s whip before he formally defected was presented by her team as an attempt to prevent a planned departure from damaging the party. The Conservative leader’s supporters could therefore argue that she had acted decisively rather than allowing an internal dispute to continue.
However, the fact that a former leadership rival subsequently joined Reform provided Farage with an opportunity to portray his party as an alternative destination for politicians dissatisfied with the Conservative leadership.
That created an uncomfortable political narrative for Badenoch, even though the circumstances of Jenrick’s departure were contested.
Reform’s growing attraction to former Conservatives
Jenrick was part of a broader pattern.
ITV News reported that Reform had attracted numerous former Conservative politicians, including Lee Anderson, Nadhim Zahawi, Nadine Dorries, Suella Braverman and others. By January 2026, the number of former Conservative MPs associated with Reform had become substantial.
Another significant development followed only days after Jenrick’s move.
Andrew Rosindell, the Conservative MP for Romford and a former shadow minister, also defected to Reform. Rosindell had been a Conservative member since the age of 14 and had represented Romford since 2001. He cited the Conservative position on the Chagos Islands among his reasons for leaving.
That sequence made the issue more difficult for the Conservatives because it suggested that defections could occur for different reasons.
Jenrick’s arguments centred heavily on the direction and record of the Conservative Party, while Rosindell highlighted a specific policy disagreement.
This distinction matters. Not every Conservative defection can necessarily be interpreted as a direct rejection of Badenoch’s leadership. Some politicians have cited policy disagreements, personal political calculations or broader disagreements about the party’s identity.
Farage’s strategy
For Farage, the arrival of senior Conservatives has also been useful in presenting Reform as more than a protest movement.
The party has historically been closely associated with Farage himself. Recruiting politicians with experience in Westminster and government allows Reform to demonstrate that it can build a broader political organisation.
Jenrick’s arrival was especially valuable because he had competed for the Conservative leadership only months earlier.
Yet the move also carried risks for Reform. Bringing former Conservatives into the party raises questions about how far Reform represents a fundamentally different political project and how much it overlaps with the Conservative tradition.
Farage has repeatedly insisted that Reform is not simply another version of the Conservative Party. The arrival of former Tory ministers and MPs therefore creates an interesting tension: the party wants their experience while simultaneously presenting itself as an alternative to the political establishment.
What the defection means for the Conservatives
The most immediate consequence for the Conservatives was political disruption.
Badenoch was forced to deal with an internal controversy involving one of her most prominent former leadership rivals. The episode also gave Reform considerable publicity at a time when both parties were competing for attention among voters on the political right.
However, describing the defection simply as proof that the Conservatives are collapsing would go beyond the available evidence.
Political parties can lose prominent figures and subsequently recover, while individual defections do not automatically translate into equivalent changes in public support.
Indeed, political circumstances continued to evolve after Jenrick’s departure. By September 2026, polling and political commentary were describing a more fluid relationship between Reform and the Conservatives, with some surveys showing changes in their relative positions.
That means the significance of any single defection should be considered within the wider political environment rather than treated as a definitive judgment on Badenoch’s leadership.
A battle over the future of the right
Ultimately, the Jenrick defection illustrated a much larger struggle.
The Conservatives and Reform are competing over overlapping sections of Britain’s political landscape, but they are not identical parties. They differ in organisation, leadership, policy emphasis and political history.
For Badenoch, the challenge is to demonstrate that the Conservative Party can maintain its identity and rebuild after electoral defeat while preventing further losses of prominent politicians.
For Farage, attracting former Conservatives provides a way to demonstrate that Reform can appeal beyond its traditional base and absorb experienced political figures.
The defection of a senior Tory therefore matters not simply because one politician changed parties. It matters because it reflects an ongoing argument about what Britain’s political right should look like in the years ahead.
Jenrick’s decision to leave the Conservatives and join Reform was one of the clearest demonstrations of that divide. Badenoch’s response showed her determination to maintain control of her party, while Farage’s welcome for Jenrick demonstrated Reform’s willingness to recruit established political figures.
Whether such defections ultimately strengthen Reform or help the Conservatives clarify their own identity remains a matter for voters and future political developments to determine. What is clear is that the competition between the two parties has become an important feature of British politics, and senior defections have become one of the most visible expressions of that contest.