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Another Conservative shadow minister has jumped ship to Reform UK, adding momentum to Nigel Farage’s populist right-wing party and posing a fresh headache for Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.
Andrew Rosindell, who was shadow minister for foreign affairs, announced his defection on Sunday night, just three days after the departure of Robert Jenrick, former shadow justice secretary.
Rosindell has been one of the most right-wing MPs in the Tory party’s ranks, having been a fervent advocate of Brexit, campaigner for the Union Jack to be flown from all public buildings and advocate for the BBC to play the national anthem every evening.
In the past he has campaigned in elections alongside a Staffordshire Bull terrier in a Union Jack waistcoat. “He is known as one of Westminster’s ‘most patriotic MPs’,” according to his own website.
He is the latest sitting Tory MP to join Farage’s grouping in the wake of Jenrick, Lee Anderson and Danny Kruger. More than 20 former Conservative MPs — many of whom lost their seats in the 2024 election — have also joined Reform UK, including former cabinet ministers Nadhim Zahawi, Jake Berry, Nadine Dorries and David Jones.
Rosindell, MP for Romford since 2001, said on the social media platform X that he had joined the Conservative party aged 14 having been inspired by Margaret Thatcher, the former prime minister.
The 59-year old said he had quit the party over its failure to stop the Labour government from handing control of the Chagos Islands, home of the Diego Garcia air base in the Indian Ocean, to Mauritius.
“The failure of the Conservative party when in government and more recently in opposition to actively hold the government to account on the issue of Chagossian self-determination and the defence of British sovereignty represents a clear red line to me.”
Farage has previously said Reform will not take any more Tory defectors after the local elections in May, saying his party was “not a rescue charity for every panicky Tory MP”. The party is enjoying a double-digit lead over both the Tories and Labour in opinion polls.
However, Farage welcomed Rosindell as a “great patriot” who would be a “great addition” to Reform UK. “The Tories’ lies and hypocrisy over the Chagos Islands betrayal has tipped him over the edge, and we are delighted to welcome him to our ranks.”
Rosindell is a far more low-profile defector than Jenrick, who shocked colleagues with what some saw as an opportunistic defection last week. Jenrick, the former shadow justice secretary, was only narrowly defeated when he stood against Badenoch for the party leadership in 2024.
In 2024 the police dropped a rape and sexual assault investigation against Rosindell, saying the evidence threshold for criminal prosecution had not been met after a “thorough investigation”.
A spokesperson for the Romford MP described him at the time as “completely exonerated” over the allegations relating to 2002-09.
One Tory aide said Farage was doing Badenoch’s “spring cleaning” by taking Rosindell into Reform’s ranks.
“The Conservative party supported Rosindell throughout his many troubles, and he’s responded by stabbing his friends, colleagues and activists in the back,” they said. “Reform are welcome to him. We’re not going to be distracted from holding this disastrous Labour government to account.”
Anna Turley, chair of the Labour party, said: “The stench of a failed and dying Tory party now engulfs Reform. The Conservatives left public services on their knees, and Nigel Farage is now unconditionally trying to rehabilitate their disastrous record.”