Just over a week after the most consequential decision of my political life, I find myself with one overriding thought: I should have done it sooner.
Outside the Conservative Party, and now a member of Reform UK, I can finally speak plainly. Not just about the grotesque failures of the last Conservative administration but about something far more important: how Britain is to be repaired.
This was not a decision taken lightly. In Fareham and Waterlooville I have worked alongside dedicated local Conservatives for more than a decade. Many remain friends. This was never about them. But it inevitably affected them. I have been deeply heartened by the number of local members who have backed my decision – or joined me – because they see what I see: the Conservative Party is no longer a viable Right-wing force.
The truth is that the Conservative Party is now, in substance, more of a social democrat party than anything else. Conservative In Name Only. This evolution began under Cameron. Exactly 10 years ago, as a new MP, I rebelled against David Cameron to vote Leave. I assumed it would be a one-off. In fact, it marked the start of a long Leftward drift by the Conservative establishment.
Theresa May’s Brexit fiasco forced my resignation from ministerial office and led me to vote three times against her Betrayal Bill as one of the 28 Spartans. When Boris Johnson entered Downing Street, I thought the Right had prevailed. It turned out to be an illusion.
In retrospect, Brexit became a kind of Right-wing façade for a deeply statist agenda: record immigration, submission to the ECHR, the highest tax burden in 70 years, net zero zealotry, woke takeover and welfare spending at historic highs.
Rishi Sunak, despite the posturing, merely continued this agenda: big spending, big government, technocratic managerialism – closer in spirit to Emmanuel Macron and Justin Trudeau than to anything recognisably conservative. Applauded in Davos. Punishing for communities at home.
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