Former Tory minister joins Reform UK

Former Tory curate Dame Andrea Jenkyns has joined Reform UK, Nigel Farage has announced.

Ms Jenkyns, who served nether the medication of Liz Truss, has been selected to basal arsenic the party's campaigner for the recently created station of Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire.

The announcement was made during a Reform property league successful which Mr Farage revealed that the party's rank had accrued to 100,000 people.

Dame Andrea told the assemblage she was "joining the enactment of the brave", adding that "our erstwhile large state is astatine a situation point".

She cited Labour's determination to transportation sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, the changes to inheritance taxation for farmers and the chopped to the wintertime substance allowance for astir pensioners.

"We request those patriotic bravehearts to beryllium a existent dependable for the people, and Reform is that voice," she said.

She went connected to accidental that portion leaving the Conservative Party was "not an casual decision", she believed the "ship is sinking, and possibly sadly, beyond salvage".

The announcement came connected the aforesaid time that authoritative figures revealed that nett migration to the UK had fallen by 20% from a grounds 906,000 the twelvemonth before.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the latest nett migration figures - the quality betwixt radical coming to unrecorded successful and leaving the UK - stood astatine an estimated 728,000 successful the twelvemonth to June 2024.

However, the full for the erstwhile year, to June 2023, has been revised upwards by 166,000 to 906,000, making it the caller highest twelvemonth alternatively of 2022.

The Reform person branded the figures "horrendous" and said helium did not judge the Tories would beryllium "forgiven" for them successful the adjacent future.

Mr Farage besides took purpose astatine Labour implicit the information the outgo of the asylum strategy has risen to £5.38bn - an summation of 36% which does not see the measures successful the English Channel to halt tiny vessel crossings.

Asked by Sky News' governmental exertion Beth Rigby whether she wanted to "kill disconnected your erstwhile colleagues" successful the Conservative Party, Dame Andrea said her determination to Reform was astir "doing what's right".

"To me, it's astir doing what's right," she said. "And the existent friends volition enactment loyal arsenic friends forever."

She said that nonetheless, "all the decent, true, Thatcherite Conservatives mislaid their seats".

Dame Andrea was elected to parliament successful 2015, famously defeating the sitting shadiness chancellor Ed Balls to instrumentality his spot of Morley and Outwood.

She served arsenic an acquisition curate successful the play aft Boris Johnson resigned arsenic the enactment contention was nether way, and near authorities aft the demise of the Truss government.

She mislaid her spot astatine the wide predetermination successful July - contempt famously having a photograph of her with Mr Farage connected her predetermination leaflets.