In a surprising move, long-serving Conservative MP for Romford, Andrew Rosindell, has announced his defection to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party. Rosindell, who previously served as a shadow Foreign Office minister under Kemi Badenoch, cited the government’s handling of the Chagos Islands issue as the primary reason for his departure from the Tories.
The Chagos Islands, a British territory in the Indian Ocean, have been at the centre of a longstanding dispute. In January, the UK government ordered Conservative peers not to vote down a bill finalising the handover of the islands to Mauritius, a decision Rosindell strongly opposed. He accused both Labour and the Conservatives of “being complicit in the surrender of this sovereign British territory to a foreign power”.
Rosindell, who has been the MP for Romford since 2001, stated that he no longer believes the Conservative party is willing to “take meaningful accountability” for its past decisions on the Chagos issue. “Radical action is now required to reverse the damaging decisions of the past and to forge a new course for Britain – one that firmly places the interests of the British people first,” he said in his statement.
The 59-year-old veteran MP is the third sitting Tory MP to defect to Reform UK, following the departures of Robert Jenrick and Danny Kruger. Jenrick’s move, which came after months of secret talks with Farage, was forced after Badenoch’s team learned of his plans and he was sacked from his shadow ministerial role.
Nigel Farage welcomed Rosindell’s decision, describing him as “a great patriot” and stating that the Tories’ “lies and hypocrisy over the Chagos Islands betrayal has tipped him over the edge”.
The defection of Rosindell, while not as high-profile as Jenrick’s, is still a blow to the Conservative party, which has now lost three sitting MPs to Reform UK in the space of just a few days. With the deadline for further defections set by Farage as 7 May, the date of elections to the Scottish and Welsh parliaments and local councils in England, the Tories will be watching closely to see if any more of their MPs follow Rosindell’s lead.