Blow to Kent Conservatives

Former Kent Conservative MP Adam Holloway has defected to Reform UK, taking a furious swipe at his old party on the way out.

Mr Holloway, who represented Gravesham until he was unseated by Labour last year, accused the last Tory government of refusing to cut migration or stand up to “public sector radicals”.

In an astonishing attack on his former party, he says that Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch is hamstrung by colleagues who would be Liberal Democrats “if the Lib Dems were winning”.

The former soldier and journalist said that Conservative values now “align more with Reform” and that the 2029 general election will be the country’s “last best chance”.

He said: “I’ve made this choice not because it’s easy or inevitable, but because the right-thinking people need to come together.”

Mr Holloway, 60, did not rule out trying to win back his old seat in the House of Commons which is now held by Dr Lauren Sullivan.

He said: “Some may say that I’ve moved to Reform because it may win my old seat. Of course that’s in my mind.

“But it’s not the reason. I know the road from protest to power is long. Reform may flare and fade.”

The Brexit-supporting former MP carried out a series of interviews ahead of the announcement breaking last Wednesday morning, including an interview with the Kent Politics Podcast.

In an opinion editorial for the Spectator, Mr Holloway wrote: “The Conservative Party I thought I joined believed in sovereignty, secure borders, lox taxes, personal responsibility and cultural confidence. That party is no longer in government – and no longer deserves to be.

“It wasn’t just defeated at the ballot box – it was hollowed out by careerists masquerading as Conservatives.

“They got there thanks to Conservative Campaign Headquarters’ obsession with the divisive and racist dogmas…over merit and sense.”

Mr Holloway said the government was elected “on promises of control and competence delivered drift disillusionment and denial”.

He added: “From the refusal to cut migration, to cowardice in confronting public sector radicals, to the erosion of free speech, the Conservatives chose to manage decline, not resist it.”

He claims that Reform’s policies are not extreme and warned his new party has to be bigger than its leader, Nigel Farage.

Mr Holloway added: “It must grow beyond its extraordinary founder, lose some of its combative edges, continue to attract serious talent, further professionalise and develop to become a credible government-in-waiting.

“That will require discipline, time and luck to challenge the deep vested interests in parliament, the civil service, the unions and the wider public sector.

“As Ronald Reagan said ‘You gotta dance with the one that brung ya”. The Conservative Party forgot to dance with the people who brought it to power.

“The challenge for Reform – and any future allies – is to become fully fit and credible for the rescue mission of 2029, which may well be the United Kingdom’s last best chance”

Reform UK is now regularly polling above 30% and Electoral Calculus recently predicted it will be the biggest party in the UK parliament with 325 seats at Westminster at the next general election, just short of an overall majority. The Tories might win 41, according to its analysis.

In Gravesham, Dr Sullivan’s 2,712 majority would be converted into a near 15% Reform majority, according to the pollster, with Labour placed third, behind the Tories.

Paying tribute to his former party leader, Mr Holloway said: “Kemi is a fighter – but she’s surrounded by too many who’d be Lib Dems if the Lib Dems were winning. She can’t charge from a trench full of MPs who won’t follow her.”

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: “Nigel Farage said: “I’m delighted to welcome Adam Holloway to Reform UK. His bold move shows that we are the only serious option in Kent and is testament to the fantastic work our councillors are delivering across the region

“Adam’s parliamentary and military experience will be vital as we look forward to the next general election.”

DANIEL ESSON OF LOCAL DEMOCRACY REPORTING SERVICE ADDS:

As a challenger party to the crumbling establishment of the centre-right, Tory-Reform defections should surprise nobody. But when those who held the coveted office of Conservative MP take a place in Nigel Farage’s enterprise, it draws attention.

Adam Holloway served as Tory MP for Gravesham from 2005 until losing his seat to Labour last year, a result induced largely by Reform splitting the vote. This week, he announced that he has shacked up with the handmaiden of his defeat and joined Reform UK itself.

In Kent, Mr Holloway joins county council leader Linden Kemkaran, KCC backbencher Oliver Bradshaw, and no doubt many among the Tories’ rank-and-file membership in jumping ship.

Nationally, former Tory chairman Jake Berry announced earlier this month his defection to Reform, and longtime editor of ConservativeHome Tim Montgomerie did the same in December.

For politicians on the Right who feel the Tories are done for and don’t want to go down with the ship, there is but one lifeboat, and its captain is the member for Clacton-on-Sea.

Mr Holloway refers to Reform’s plans for the country similarly as a ‘rescue mission’ in his Spectator article this week.

He has up-close experience of insurgency, having served in the army, and voluntarily spent his gap year with the Afghan Mujahideen who were fighting against the Soviet Union. Whether he can employ this experience in an electoral uprising against his former party remains to be seen.

He rails against his former party’s historical expansion of mass immigration, and says the task of Reform is to take on “the deep vested interests in Parliament, the civil service, the unions, and the wider public sector.”

No mention of any private sector vested interests, of course – this Thatcherite sentiment will be just as at home in Reform as in the Conservatives.

Mr Holloway even drops the c-word: ‘careerists’, accusing them of “masquerading as Conservatives” and “hollowing out” that party.

He is near-certain to be the Reform candidate for his former seat, Gravesham, if he chooses to stand, which Electoral Calculus currently predict Reform will win in 2029. “Of course that’s in my mind. But it’s not the reason,” he writes.

He stressed to us on this week’s Kent Politics Podcast that he did not mince his words for the sake of his career as a Tory MP – he resigned as a ministerial aide in 2011 to vote for a referendum on the EU, and said his party was acting “totalitarian” and “woke” for removing the whip from Andrew Bridgen for his anti-vax views in 2023.

Politicians of all parties know they must rhetorically disavow any explicit desire for office, and be seen to approach the apple of their eye gently – each concession of coveting power paired with a caveat.

This is not to say he is dishonest about his conversion, but self-interest and genuine belief often go hand in hand. Similar accusations will dog every Tory who defects to Reform.

No member of the public is voting Reform because the party is seen to be attracting the right talent and experience – whether you think it actually is or not. They do so because they want to stick two fingers up to the political establishment from which the likes of Holloway are drawn.

Holloway says Farage is “extraordinary”, but increasingly ordinary politicians like him are seeing the writing on the wall. Across Europe, populist Right parties are increasingly a feature of politics rather than a bug – perfectly at home in the elite institutions they claim to oppose.

Reform has some years before it is at risk of being domesticated in this way, but the greater the predominance of experienced ex-Tory politicians in the party, the closer it inches to truly replacing the Conservatives, and the greater the risk of replicating them.