Sir Jake Berry has defected to Reform UK, becoming the second former Tory cabinet minister to make the switch this week.
Announcing the move, the former Tory Party chairman said this is the “last chance to pull Britain back from terminal decline”.
He said the Conservatives have “lost their way” as he abandoned his affiliation to the party after nearly 30 years.
Sir Jake said: “Britain is broken.
“We literally live in a country where you cannot walk down the street with a phone in your hand.
“We have taxes that are so sky high, the brightest and best are leaving our country in droves, while at the same time a benefit system that is bringing the world’s poor to our shores with no control.
“If you literally want to design a system to destroy a country, you would struggle to do better.”
He added that the “old parties do not have what it takes to transform our country”, or to “build a Britain we can believe in again.”
Sir Jake heaped praise on Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who backed to deliver change for the UK.
“That’s why I’ve decided to join the Reform Party. It is only Reform and Nigel Farage who can deliver a Britain that we are proud of again. Nigel Farage has always stuck by his principles,” he said in a video statement to The Sun.
Sir Jake said Mr Farage is man who can be trusted, given campaigned for Brexit despite it being unpopular.
“He doesn’t change his views when the political weather changes.
“And because you know you can trust him, I can trust him too,” he said.
He added that he’s going to spend “every day campaigning to ensure that Nigel Farage and Reform form the next government of this great United Kingdom”.
Sir Jake held several ministerial posts for the Conservatives. He was party chairman under Liz Truss, and a minister under Boris Johnson and Theresa May.
His defection comes after ex-Wales secretary David Jones made the switch to Reform earlier this week.
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.
Other ex-Tories who have joined Reform include Marco Longhi, Anne Marie Morris, Ross Thomson, Aiden Burley and Dame Andrea Jenkyns, now the mayor of Greater Lincolnshire.
By Jacob Paul
