Tories plunged into chaos by fresh defection amid Kemi Badenoch 'banana republics' jibe

The Tories were plunged into a fresh crisis after a former chairman defected to Reform with a warning the party had "lost their way".

Kemi Badenoch has hit back at defectors like Sir Jake Berry, who dramatically quit to join Nigel Farage' s party on Wednesday, accusing them of behaving "like they do in banana republics". Announcing his defection, Sir Jake said his former Conservative colleagues had "lost their way".

He was the latest in a string of Tory defectors, joining former Wales secretary David Jones, former minister Dame Andrea Jenkyns and others in jumping ship to Reform. The former MP for Rossendale and Darwen, who was given a knighthood by Boris Johnson, lost his seat to Labour at the general election.

But on Thursday, Ms Badenoch suggested politicians such as Sir Jake had "probably been holding us back for a long time" and were "welcome" to leave.

READ MORE: Former Tory chairman Sir Jake Berry defects to Nigel Farage's Reform UK

She said: "There are a lot of people who come into politics just to play the game of politics, and they will follow polls and defect wherever they can, like they do in banana republics, to wherever they think that they can win."

She added: "All of the people who are not interested in coming up with a proper policy plan and just want to jump ship are welcome to do so. Because when the time comes at the next general election, the public are going to be looking for a serious, credible alternative."

At an event in Parliament, Chris Philp yesterday told reporters he thought defectors had “made a mistake” by switching to Reform UK. Asked how he felt about Tory “heavyweights” leaving the party, the shadow home secretary jibed that “the word heavyweight is doing quite a bit of work”.

He went on: “They’ve done the wrong thing. They've made a mistake, but it's not going to, as we know, it's not going to change the political weather in any way.”

Mr Philp also mocked Reform UK - which had five MPs - recently being reduced to four MPs, after MP James McMurdock left the party over a probe relating to allegations around "business propriety during the pandemic". He said: “They’ve gone from needing a mini cab to travel around in. Pretty soon it’ll be a unicycle.”

The former Policing Minister, who served in Rishi Sunak ’s government, also said he “regrets the election timing for a number of reasons”, including that he believes the plan to deport migrants to Rwanda “would have worked”.

Elsewhere Ms Badenoch, in a speech at the Centre for Social Justice, called for tougher action on welfare reform. She claimed Britain was becoming "a welfare state with an economy attached", describing the current system as "unsustainable".

The Tory leader called for sickness benefits to be withdrawn from people with less serious conditions. She also failed to commit to keeping the pensions triple lock, which sparked criticism from Labour and the Lib Dems.

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