Nadine Dorries defects to Nigel Farage's Reform saying Tory Party is DEAD

Former Tory frontbencher and I'm A Celeb star Nadine Dorries has defected to Reform UK.

Ms Dorries, who has spent more than two years trying to convince the world that Boris Johnson was the victim of an underhand Conservative plot, whined that her old party is "dead". In a brutal jibe at Kemi Badenoch she said: "The Conservative Party cannot win the next election. It removes election winning prime ministers, and replaces them with duds."

The former Culture Secretary quit as an MP in 2023 and blamed "sinister forces" for her not being handed a peerage. At the time fellow Conservatives voiced their fury, with colleague Tobias Ellwood accusing her of a "selfish charade" while Sir Robert Neill said she had "become an embarrassment".

READ MORE: Compulsory ID cards supported by nearly six in 10 Brits as PM weighs up plan

READ MORE: Nigel Farage's 'papier-mache' jails plan branded 'absolutely ridiculous' by prisons minister

But the Daily Mail reports Ms Dorries has not ruled out a return to the Commons. She told the newspaper: "The Tory Party is dead. Its members now need to think the unthinkable and look to the future."

During a colourful spell in the Commons, she was found to have been among 10 MPs who carried out a "co-ordinated campaign of interference in the work of the Privileges Committee" while it investigated shamed Mr Johnson.

And more than a decade earlier, in 2012, she had the Tory whip withdrawn after agreeing to appear on ITV show I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here. She had not spoken to her national or local party before doing so.

A Liberal Democrat source said: "We don't know who to feel more sorry for, Kemi Badenoch or Nigel Farage." And a Labour spokeswoman said: “Nadine Dorries says the Tory Party is dead - as one of the people who helped to kill it, she should know.

"She backed Boris Johnson through thick and thin despite the partying in Downing Street during the pandemic while people couldn't see their loved ones. And now she wants to help unleash the same chaos the Tories inflicted on Britain by joining Nigel Farage’s Reform.

“Nadine Dorries has gone on quite a political journey - from being the minister who introduced the Online Safety Bill to joining a party that wants to scrap it without having any idea how to replace its protections for children and adults. It’s a perfect illustration of how incoherent Reform are - all anger, no answers, with contradictions building by the day.”

Ms Dorries was a fierce critic of Rishi Sunak in her final months as an MP, and later wrote a book called The Plot alleging Mr Johnson was unfairly ousted. It was dubbed "the single weirdest book I have ever read" by The Times' Patrick Maguire.

Nevertheless Mr Farage indicated she would fit right in. He told the Mail: "I am absolutely delighted to welcome Nadine Dorries to Reform UK. She is a hugely successful politician, author and columnist and will be a great boost to our campaign to win the next General Election."

* This is a breaking news story. Follow us on Google News , Flipboard , Apple News , Twitter , Facebook or visit The Mirror homepage