The former Conservative cabinet minister David Jones has joined Reform UK.
Jones, who was the MP for Clwyd West from 2005 until standing down in 2024, said he had quit the Tories after “more than 50 years of continuous membership”.
He said: “It was, naturally, a very difficult decision for me. As a matter of courtesy, I wrote to the party chairman in October to inform him of my intention not to renew my membership. I did not receive a reply.
“I joined the Conservatives all those years ago because I believed it was the party that best reflected my values and beliefs. Regrettably, that is no longer the case. Today, Reform UK is the party that best represents my views – and, I believe, those of many others who have become disillusioned with the two old major parties.”
Citing concern about the cost of living, illegal immigration and “the steady erosion of our national sovereignty”, Jones said Reform UK was the only party “demonstrating the determination needed to tackle the country’s many problems and to improve the lives of people across Britain”.
Jones served as Welsh secretary under David Cameron between 2012 and 2014. He also served as a minister in the Department for Exiting the EU under Theresa May between 2016 and 2017.
He later became deputy chair of the European Research Group, a Eurosceptic group of Tory MPs.
Jones, who stood down from parliament last year after 19 years as an MP, said he had no intention of standing for election, and had joined Reform “as a private individual”.
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But as a former cabinet minister, he is the most senior ex-Tory MP to join Reform so far, following Marco Longhi, Anne Marie Morris, Ross Thomson, Aidan Burley and Dame Andrea Jenkyns, now the mayor of Greater Lincolnshire.