Senior Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell quits the party, accusing it of failure and joining Reform UK
Andrew Rosindell has ended his 25-year association with the Conservative Party, resigning as a Tory MP and defecting to Reform UK in a move that deepens the sense of crisis engulfing Britain’s main opposition party.
The long-serving MP for Romford confirmed his decision on Friday, saying the Conservatives were now “irreparably bound to the mistakes of previous governments” and unwilling to accept responsibility for what he described as years of damaging decisions. His departure follows a string of high-profile defections and comes just hours after the fallout from Robert Jenrick’s dramatic exit earlier in the week.
Rosindell, 59, said he reached his decision after speaking with Reform UK leader Nigel Farage on Sunday evening. Shortly after the announcement, Farage welcomed him warmly, describing Rosindell as “a great patriot” and praising his commitment to national sovereignty and accountability.
For the Conservatives, the reaction was stark. A party source dismissed the defection as further evidence of Farage doing leader Kemi Badenoch’s “spring cleaning”, adding pointedly that Reform UK was “welcome” to Rosindell. The tone underlined growing frustration within Tory ranks as MPs continue to peel away.
In a statement posted on social media, Rosindell said the views of constituents like those in Romford had been “consistently ignored for far too long”. He painted a bleak picture of the country’s trajectory, arguing Britain had suffered “a generation of managed decline” and now required “radical action” to reverse course.
Rosindell had been serving as a shadow minister for foreign affairs before his resignation. He has represented Romford since 2001, though his once-commanding majority shrank dramatically at the last general election, falling from nearly 18,000 to just 1,463. That erosion of support, coupled with mounting internal tensions, appears to have sharpened the political pressure he faced.
His defection makes him Reform UK’s seventh MP and the third sitting Conservative MP to cross the floor to the party, following Danny Kruger and Jenrick. Taken together, this week’s moves mean Reform now sits as the joint fifth-largest grouping in the Commons, alongside Sinn Féin, which does not take its seats. Reform is now just two MPs behind the SNP.
Rosindell cited several specific grievances behind his decision, including the Labour government’s move to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. He criticised both the government and the Conservatives, accusing them of being “complicit in the surrender of this sovereign British territory to a foreign power” and failing to hold ministers properly to account.
Farage echoed that criticism, saying the Conservatives’ handling of the Chagos Islands issue had “tipped him over the edge”. He added that Rosindell’s arrival strengthened Reform’s claim to be a serious parliamentary force rather than a protest movement.
Not everyone within the Conservative Party sees the defections in the same light. Shadow Welsh secretary Mims Davies condemned MPs who switch allegiance, calling such moves “self-serving and completely wrong”. She questioned Reform UK’s ideological coherence, arguing that while it presents itself as right-wing, many of its policies are populist and, in her view, left-leaning.
Davies also warned against rhetoric portraying Britain as broken. Voters, she said, wanted solutions and effort, not despair or political opportunism.
Despite the turmoil, Conservative sources insist they remain focused on challenging the Labour government, not internal drama. But as senior figures continue to defect, the sense of a party struggling to hold itself together grows stronger, with Rosindell’s exit marking another stark moment in an unfolding political unravelling.