Former Tory minister Dame Andrea Jenkyns has joined Reform UK, Nigel Farage has introduced.
Ms Jenkyns, who served below the administration of Liz Truss, has been chosen to face because the get together’s candidate for the newly created put up of Mayor of Better Lincolnshire.
The announcement was made throughout a Reform press convention wherein Mr Farage revealed that the get together’s membership had elevated to 100,000 individuals.
Dame Andrea instructed the viewers she was “joining the party of the brave”, including that “our once great country is at a crisis point”.
She cited Labour’s determination to switch sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, the modifications to inheritance tax for farmers and the reduce to the winter gas allowance for many pensioners.
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“We need those patriotic bravehearts to be a true voice for the people, and Reform is that voice,” she stated.
She went on to say that whereas leaving the Conservative Celebration was “not an easy decision”, she believed the “ship is sinking, and perhaps sadly, beyond salvage”.
The announcement got here on the identical day that official figures revealed that web migration to the UK had fallen by 20% from a report 906,000 the 12 months earlier than.
The Workplace for Nationwide Statistics (ONS) stated the newest web migration figures – the distinction between individuals coming to reside in and leaving the UK – stood at an estimated 728,000 within the 12 months to June 2024.
Nevertheless, the overall for the earlier 12 months, to June 2023, has been revised upwards by 166,000 to 906,000, making it the brand new highest 12 months as an alternative of 2022.
The Reform chief branded the figures “horrendous” and stated he didn’t consider the Tories could be “forgiven” for them within the close to future.
Mr Farage additionally took goal at Labour over the very fact the price of the asylum system has risen to £5.38bn – a rise of 36% which doesn’t embody the measures within the English Channel to cease small boat crossings.
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Farage slams web migration figures
“To me, it’s about doing what’s right,” she stated. “And the true friends will stay loyal as friends forever.”
She added: “All the decent, true, Thatcherite Conservatives lost their seats.”
Dame Andrea was elected to parliament in 2015, famously defeating the sitting shadow chancellor Ed Balls to take his seat of Morley and Outwood.
She served as an training minister within the interval after Boris Johnson resigned because the management contest was below approach, and left authorities after the demise of the Truss authorities.
She misplaced her seat on the normal election in July – regardless of having a photograph of her with Mr Farage on her election leaflets.
