Reform UK have today unveiled their latest defector from the Tories. Sir Jake Berry is, arguably, the most senior name to switch parties to date. A Conservative MP from 2010 to 2024, he served as Party Chairman under Liz Truss and was a lead proponent of levelling up as chair of the Northern Research Group. A year after losing his Lancashire constituency, it looks as though he has concluded his future now lies outside the Conservatives. Writing in the Sun, he says Labour and the Tories ‘abandoned the British people’ and share equal responsibility for the state of the country.
Berry is the fifth former Tory MP to come across to Reform. The question that Nigel Farage’s team ask when considering a new defector is ‘What value do they bring?’ For Berry, the answer seems to be threefold. First, there are his skills as a campaigner. He is an experienced media operator, who waged a long-running war for more funding for the north in the last parliament. Second, his backroom experience at CCHQ. He was genuinely committed to overhauling the Tory party machine and will no doubt have useful insights to now offer Reform HQ. Third, his ability to hit the Tories where it hurts. Sir Jake will be used to highlight the party’s abandonment of the north and the different failings of Kemi Badenoch’s shadow cabinet, most of whom he knows well.
News of his defection has certainly caused more of a stir among old Tory colleagues than the likes of Marcus Longhi or Anne Marie Morris. ‘You’re kidding’, was the instant reaction of one shadow cabinet minister last night when the story broke. ‘He’s the type you’d want on your side in a fight’, reflected another Tory MP. A briefing war immediately began. Reform sources crowed that ‘We are still just getting started’, having ‘led in the last 57 national opinion polls.’ The Tories retorted by pointing to Berry’s record as a Net Zero Remainer: ‘He’s had more positions than the Karma Sutra, and is now living proof that Reform will take anyone… until they eventually chuck them out.’
Nigel Farage has enjoyed a remarkable 12 months since the election. But success breeds high expectations. Critics will be quick to jump on any evidence which suggests that the Reform might have hit their peak. So a steady drumbeat of bad stories for Kemi Badenoch have been dripped out in recent weeks, ahead of a big summer campaign beginning in a fortnight’s time. ‘We’ve always got a few more cards up our sleeves,’ remarks one Reform aide. Other ex-MPs continue to have discussions about switching sides; within the Tories Suella Braverman is commonly viewed as the most likely sitting MP to defect.
Projecting momentum is crucial to the Farage project. At both an elite and popular level, Reform need to constantly show that they, not the Tories, are the future. In attracting Berry, they have recruited a dynamic force who, at just 46, has already enjoyed a starring role in several recent chapters of British politics. If Reform get the best of his talents then he could help write another in the battle for 2029.
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