Former Conservative Party vice-chairman Jonathan Gullis has announced that he has left the party and joined Reform UK.
The former Stoke-on-Trent North MP and Education Minister was a party member for 18 years, but said he believed the party had “lost touch with the people it was supposed to serve”.
It comes a month after the leader of Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s Conservative group, Councilor Daniel Jellyman, also joined Reform UK and became leader of the party in the local authority.
The BBC has contacted the Staffordshire Conservatives for comment.
“From failing to control legal and illegal migration to pushing a net zero agenda that has seen our household energy bills rise and put jobs in Stoke-on-Trent’s world-famous ceramics sector at risk, the Conservative Party has lost the trust of the British people,” Mr Gullis said in a statement released on Monday.
During his tenure in Parliament, he served as Minister for School Standards at the Department for Education and last year he was appointed as Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Party.
He is currently the mayor of Kidsgrove.
Reform UK gained its first seat on the city council after councilor Luke Shenton won a by-election in May.
Shenton said: “Jonathan’s decision to join us is a huge boost for Reform UK at a local level.
“The people of Stoke-on-Trent deserve better than this failed Labor government.
“Together, we will fight for the hard-working people of Stoke-on-Trent, and create a real alternative to this tired political establishment.”
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