Reform UK has been challenged to rule out recruiting Liz Truss to its ranks, after her one-time celebration chairman, Sir Jake Berry, grew to become the newest former Conservative MP to defect from the Tories.
The Liberal Democrats described Berry, who like Truss misplaced his seat on the 2024 normal election, as an “architect of financial catastrophe” — a reference to the September 2022 mini-budget.
In a contemporary blow to Kemi Badenoch, the embattled Tory chief, Berry mentioned his former celebration had “deserted the British individuals” in an announcement final night time.
In an article for the Solar newspaper, Berry mentioned he was leaving the Conservative Occasion after 25 years as a member and 14 as an MP. He added that Reform UK, Nigel Farage’s celebration, was the “final probability to tug Britain again from terminal decline”.
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Sir Jake, who as soon as led the Northern Analysis Group of “crimson wall” Tory MPs, accused the Conservative Occasion of “abandoning the British individuals” however insisted he was not “giving up”.
He added: “In the event you had been intentionally making an attempt to wreck the nation, you’d be hard-pressed to do a greater job than the final 20 years of Labour and Tory rule.”
Berry served because the MP Rossendale and Darwen in Lancashire between 2010 and 2024. He held a number of ministerial posts together with within the Division for Housing, Communities and Native Authorities, Vitality and Local weather Change and the Cupboard Workplace.
Most notably, he was chairman of the Conservative Occasion from September to October 2022, throughout Truss’ temporary and chaotic tenure as prime minister.
Berry is the newest former Tory MP to hitch Reform UK, simply days after Farage celebrated the defection of David Jones. Jones, like Berry, is an ex-cabinet minister.
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Former Conservative cupboard minister David Jones joins Reform UK
The Lib Dems have now accused Reform UK of turning right into a “Truss tribute act.” Responding to Berry’s defection, the celebration’s deputy chief, Daisy Cooper, issued a direct problem to Farage.
She mentioned: “Nigel Farage wants to right away rule out Liz Truss becoming a member of Reform following the defection of yet one more certainly one of her mini-budget buddies.
“Reform is wanting extra like a Truss tribute act each day that goes by. Removed from simply praising her disastrous mini finances as one of the best factor since sliced bread, Farage is actively recruiting the architects of the financial catastrophe that left struggling households reeling.”
A Labour Occasion spokesperson mentioned: “Not content material with taking recommendation from Liz Truss, Nigel Farage has now tempted her Tory Occasion chairman into his ranks. It’s clear Farage desires Liz Truss’s reckless economics, which crashed our financial system and despatched mortgages spiralling, to be Reform’s blueprint for Britain. It’s a recipe for catastrophe and dealing individuals could be left paying the value.
“Solely our Labour authorities is placing extra money in individuals’s pockets, boosting British jobs, and delivering the renewal our nation wants by way of our plan for change.”
A Conservative Occasion spokesman mentioned: “Reform help rising the advantages invoice by eradicating the two-child cap, and nationalising British business. Against this the Conservatives, beneath new management, will preserve making the case for sound cash, decrease taxes and bringing the welfare invoice beneath management.
“We want Jake effectively in his new excessive spend, excessive tax celebration.”
Josh Self is editor of Politics.co.uk, observe him on Bluesky right here and X right here.
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