A LEADING Conservative figure has defected to Reform UK.
Tim Montgomerie – founder of the ConservativeHome website – was announced as Reform’s newest recruit on Monday evening.
After 33 years in the Conservative Party, Tim Montgomerie, former adviser to Boris Johnson and creator and editor of Conservative Home, has joined Reform UK. pic.twitter.com/Mb2aL6DTnC
— Reform UK (@reformparty_uk) December 3, 2024
The party said in a tweet: “After 33 years in the Conservative Party, Tim Montgomerie, former adviser to Boris Johnson and creator and editor of Conservative Home, has joined Reform UK.”
Montgomerie is the latest senior Tory figure to quit the party for Reform after former minister Andrea Jenkyns announced she had defected last week.
At the time, she said she was "joining the party of the brave", adding that "our once great country is at a crisis point"
Montgomerie quit the Tories in 2016, citing the leadership's stance on Europe, which was then supportive of EU membership.
In 2019, he was briefly a special adviser to former prime minister Boris Johnson, advising on social justice issues.
During the 2024 General Election campaign, he told Times Radio that if he lived in certain constituencies, he would vote for Reform UK, including Nigel Farage in Clacton and Richard Tice in Boston and Skegness.
Farage, leader of Reform UK, offered a “very Reform welcome” to Montgomerie.
