Former Morley & Outwood Tory MP Dame Andrea Jenkyns joins Reform UK
The former government minister lost her seat in July - and blamed Reform UK at the time
Former Morley & Outwood Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns said she is "politically aligned" with Reform UK after announcing she has joined the party.
She is the 100,000th member of Reform UK, Nigel Farage announced, and she will run to be the party's candidate for the newly-created mayor of Lincolnshire on May 1 next year.
Asked how long she had been thinking about defecting, she said she has "always respected" Nigel Farage and noted her work with Richard Tice during Brexit.
"We are politically aligned. And how long have I been thinking about it? Well, I mean, I was tempted before the general election, but I am a loyal person to a party.
"I might not be loyal to prime ministers, as we've seen in the past, but I'm loyal to parties, and I believed, as I said, in going down with that ship fighting.
"I was elected as a Conservative, and I got knocked out as a Conservative, but I feel, unfortunately, the party has become tired."
After being defeated by Labour in the West Yorkshire constituency earlier this year, Ms Jenkyns told us: "The Reform vote split my vote, if Reform had not stood I would have won".
"When Nigel Farage, Richard Tice, Reform say they want to destroy the (Conservative) Party.... they've done it"
She served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Skills in both the Boris Johnson and Liz Truss administrations.