Why are so many Tories joining Reform?

为何如此多的托利党人加入改革党?

Today in Focus

2026-01-23

27 分钟
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There have been a slew of defections as Reform rides high in the polls. But is it changing the party? Peter Walker reports. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus
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  • This is The Guardian.

  • Today, Wytorries are queuing up to join reform.

  • So, I've arrived in Davos, and yes you have.

  • Peter, what is Nigel Farage doing in Davos?

  • It's like a question.

  • I mean, he's hobnobbing with the rich and famous.

  • Of course he is.

  • For years,

  • Farage has railed against the World Economic Forum and its annual summit in the snow-capped Swiss mountains where world leaders,

  • CEOs, tech types and bankers gather for corporate networking.

  • He calls them globalists who want to get rid of the nation state and he would sometimes delve into territory which was loosely allied to anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about globalists and bankers wanting to take over the world.

  • Because we can decide all of this in ski resorts, in Switzerland, isn't it wonderful?

  • But now he's decided it's a useful place to go.

  • While Farage has made a 180 degree political turn,

  • so have the ambitious Tories who once slagged off his party, but are now jostling to join him.

  • Doris, the former Conservative Minister, she's defecting.

  • Conservative gentleman Nadeem Zahawi has quit the party he served.

  • The MP Danny Kruger has become the first sitting Conservative MP to defect.

  • One of the most senior members of the Tory party did indeed appear alongside Reform UK's leader as their newest recruit.

  • Reform has always sold the idea that they operate outside the political establishment and that they're different from everything we've seen before.