There are some things Nigel Farage gets right. He has been a good campaigner highlighting the scandal of too much illegal migration. He is right to say Councillors should not ask the government to cancel elections they clearly do not want to hold for fear of bad outcomes. By the same logic Nigel Farage should say if an MP wants to switch from the party that helped elect him to a new party within the same Parliament they should request a by election. Voters should be given the chance to back their MP with his new beliefs and party allegiance, or to elect someone who will carry out their original intentions of supporting the party they voted for. Most people vote mainly for a party, with personal votes for individual MPs usually being a minor part of the candidate’s total vote.
As a Conservative MP who always stood whilst issuing a related personal pledge to work for an EU referendum and then exit I was under endless pressure to switch to the Referendum party, to UKIP, to the Brexit party. I always made clear I had promised my electors to usually support a Conservative government whilst using my position to urge them to the Eurosceptic answer. I correctly argued that only by being a Conservative MP could I help secure a referendum on leaving the EU, and after doing that I could help make a Conservative government get us out of the EU in line with the vote.
So it proved. I would have felt honour bound to resign and stand in a by election if I had changed my view on how to secure exit. As history showed, the Referendum, UKIP and Brexit parties only succeeded in getting one MP elected between them in the various general elections they fought.It was Conservative MP votes that secured the referendum and secured the eventual exit from the EU.It was a few Conservative MPs including myself who prevented the civil service/ Mrs May terms being imposed on us on exit.
A week ago Monday I bumped into Robert Jenrick in a corridor at Westminster when I was going to sort out arrangements for my new role. I congratulated him on the work he had been doing on law, order and migration issues as a Shadow Cabinet member. I said I thought Mr Zahawi had made a big mistake for himself by joining Reform and speculated on how he would get on with Richard Tice and Mr Yousef who both have wishes to be leading on economic policy for Reform. Mr Jenrick seemed to agree with my remarks and added an unsolicited unfavourable description of Mr Zahawi. Mr Zahawi had not taken a more Reform style line on issues like immigration when he was in government with some influence though now claims to support the full Reform approach. Both Mr Zahawi and Mr Jenrick now have to explain their recently discovered support for removing the two child cap, for proportional representation, for expensive pledges to nationalise big industries.
The public want their politicians to have principles, to say what they mean and do what they say. Whilst of course it can make sense to change a view on a particular policy or approach when the facts or circumstances change, it is more difficult to convincingly change views on things as fundamental as the desirability of large scale immigration or whether the UK should be an independent self governing country or not. Robert Jenrick was a Remain supporter.Mr Zahawi supported high rates of migration.
If we all agree Council elections must not be delayed for a year to let people decide, we should also agree if an elected MP wants to change parties he or she should seek a new endorsement from electors as 2 Conservatives going to UKIP did.(Clacton and Rochester). Only one of them survived the subsequent general election so he did not help us secure Brexit.
January 20, 2026
Worse still Zahawi was a strong supporter of Net Zero and his fastest roll out of the Covid “vaccines”. He still seems proud of this despite all the abundant evidence that it did no good and did vast net harms and anyway young people and those who had had Covid already had zero need of it even had it been safe and effective. The man even wanted it to be enforced in certain professions!
January 20, 2026
The problem with Robert Jenrick is was his Damascene conversion from lefty Cameronite, fan of net zero, expensive unreliable energy, a big state, tax to death, open door to immigration, pro red tape and pro EU views – to fairly sensible realist genuine? He did at least read history and not PPE I suppose which is a little better I suppose!
January 20, 2026
The biggest contradiction for Nigel Farage is that he cannot be sacked as leader of his party.
In this he is unique, so demanding elections for others, councillors etc., does not lie in his mouth.
Farage found a lot that he liked in the EU. No least the ‘job security’ of those who constitute the Commission.
January 20, 2026
‘ The public want their politicians to have principles, to say what they mean and do what they say. ’
“These are my principles – and if you don’t like them I have others!” Groucho Marx.
Delaying council elections involves more politicians than single MPs not holding a by election. It also helps a failing government lessen the impact of a backlash from voters.
Both Zahawi and Jenrick are dodgy but personally ambitious types. I don’t know enough about the last chap to switch to Reform
January 20, 2026
Winston Churchill switched parties twice without resigning for a by election.
‘Anyone can rat, but it takes a certain amount of ingenuity to re-rat.’
January 20, 2026
My Lord,
There is some sense of rats deserting a sinking ship with the defections however, if I were the Reform Party leader, I would be very wary of accepting lots of members from other parties. The electorate soundly rejected The Conservative Party at the last election and I feel there is a danger of people being sceptical of those that jumped ship. Why would people vote for those they’ve already rejected?
I feel the current leader of the Conservatives is starting to find her feet and has started to be more impressive although, she is no Mrs T.
She has an uphill struggle though because, she is presiding over effectively a Conservative Party in name only, just as the Conservative government delivered a Brexit, in name only.
I don’t think I moved away from the Conservative Party, I think the Conservative Party moved away from me and many of it’s core voters.
Politics is at present, in a mess, but hopefully the move amongst the electorate away from the Uni party to Reform is the kick up the backside the PPE political clones needed.