Former North Wales Tory minister David Jones has joined Reform
David Jones, who served as Welsh secretary under David Cameron between 2012 and 2014, announced he was joining Nigel Farage's party on Monday after more than 50 years as a Tory.
The former Clwyd West MP described the move as 'a very difficult decision for me' and said he had written to the Conservatives in October to say he would not renew his membership, but received no reply.
He said: 'I joined the Conservatives all those years ago because I believed it was the party that best reflected my values and beliefs. Regrettably, that is no longer the case.
'Today, Reform UK is the party that best represents my views - and, I believe, those of many others who have become disillusioned with the two old major parties.'
After losing his cabinet job in the 2014 reshuffle, he went on to become a minister in the Department for Exiting the EU under Theresa May for a year between 2016 and 2017.
He later became deputy chairman of the European Research Group, a Eurosceptic group of Tory MPs.
Mr Jones, who stood down from Parliament last year after 19 years as an MP, said he had no intention of standing for election, and had joined Reform 'as a private individual'.
But as a former cabinet minister, he is the most senior ex-Tory MP to join Reform so far, following Marco Longhi, Anne Marie Morris, Ross Thomson, Aiden Burley and Dame Andrea Jenkyns, now the mayor of Greater Lincolnshire.
His defection also comes as Mr Farage's party seeks to make significant gains in next year's elections at the Senedd in Wales, where polls suggest the party is in second or third place, behind Plaid Cymru.
It is a boost for Reform after a difficult weekend in which one of its five MPs 'removed the party whip from himself' amid allegations about two of his businesses.
James McMurdock, MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock, insisted 'all' of his 'business dealings' complied with regulations following claims he improperly borrowed money from the government during the pandemic.
He is the second of the five Reform MPs elected in 2024 who have since lost the party whip, after Rupert Lowe was suspended in March.
Nigel Farage's party reported the Great Yarmouth MP to the Metropolitan Police in March over alleged threats of physical violence against Reform chairman Zia Yusuf.
The Crown Prosecution Service later said Lowe would not face criminal charges over the claims, which he called "false" and a "brutal smear campaign". He now sits in the Commons as an independent.
He has announced he is founding 'Restore Britain', a new movement but not a political party, putting together policy prescriptions for Britain and lobbying the Government.
Meanwhile former Deputy Leader of Reform UK Ben Habib has launched Advance UK, hailed as a new "political force on the British political landscape". He left the party after falling out with leader Nigel Farage.
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