Marco Longhi, the former Conservative MP for Dudley North, has joined Nigel Farage’s Reform UK after accusing his old party of having been “captured by a left-wing influence masquerading as conservatism”.
He is the third ex-Tory MP to defect to Reform UK since last year’s general election, following Aidan Burley and Dame Andrea Jenkyns.
Longhi, who lost his seat in July, claimed the Conservative Party he once identified with had become “unrecognisable” and said he could no longer stand by the “uniparty drift” towards a “left-wing agenda”. He pledged that, if re-elected, he would remain loyal to “the people,” rather than the party leadership.
His defection coincides with a new “mega-poll” by Stonehaven, based on 17,000 voters, suggesting that Reform UK would capture up to 120 seats if a general election were held today. It also indicates Labour would fall from its current 411 MPs to 278, while the Tories would rise to 157 seats from 121. Although Reform UK has only five MPs at present, the poll suggests its strongest gains could come in East Anglia, Essex and much of northern England’s so-called red wall.
Other former Conservative figures have gravitated towards Farage’s party, including Nick Candy, who serves as Reform UK’s billionaire treasurer, and Tim Montgomerie, founder of the ConservativeHome website. Rael Braverman, husband of ex-home secretary Suella Braverman, also recently defected, though she dismissed any suggestion that she might follow.