REFORM CHAIR’S JAB AT EX-MP

CRUMBRIA: 21/05/2025: EXCLUSIVE

Reform Cumbria chairman today hits back at ex-MP Mark Jenkinson….
Tories a “spent force” and former Workington MP will “regret” not defecting….
Attack on Reform is sign of Tories “polling angst”….

By The Cumbria Chronic

THE Chairman of Reform UK in Cumbria says former Workington Tory MP, Mark Jenkinson, will regret not leaving Kemi Badenoch’s Conservatives to join the Party.

Matthew Moody, Reform branch chairman for Penrith & Solway, responded today to an article written this week by Mr Jenkinson for Conservative Home.

Mr Jenkinson, a former member of UKIP, wrote that he would not defect to Reform UK and went on to accuse senior movers in the party nationally as being “frauds”, while explaining that he quit UKIP due to concerns about its “internal democracy”.

Mr Moody hit back in a statement to the Chronic.

Mr Moody said: “The Tories are a spent force and whilst Mark Jenkinson has often attached his colours to embattled leaders (Johnson, Sunak and now Badenoch), it seems clear that he has hoisted his mast to the wrong colours and whilst I can’t say I blame him, I do appreciate his angst.

“After all, the Tories are currently polling in fourth place on a poll out yesterday by YouGov at 16% and nothing they do will fix this.”

Mr Moody added: “Reform UK is polling at 29% in the latest polls and that is a credit to the team at the top who have done everything that they said they would last year at the party conference.

“We will continue to grow whilst the likes of Mr Jenkinson will secretly wish they had made the choice to jump (but who really wants a politician who jumps ship when it suits them in your party?)

Mr Moody added: “I appreciated the effort put into constituency work by Mark Jenkinson and his team when he was an MP but I’m afraid that sour grapes won’t lead to him winning his old seat back.

“The days of the Conservative Party are over.”

You can read the rest of his letter to the Chronic below.

By Matthew Moody, Branch Chairman, Penrith & Solway, Reform UK

I read the article the other day that Mark Jenkinson wrote about why he will never defect to Reform UK and thought to myself; the delicious irony of the chap.

People are sick and tired of the lies from the same old tired parties who have done nothing that they promised and then blamed the previous party (or cabinet, or prime minister, or civil service, or anyone else they find in Number 10.)

Reform UK attracts people who understand what commonsense practical policies are and want to rebuild our country but in a different way to the same old nonsense that has perpetuated our politics for the last 150 years.

We are open to anybody who shares our beliefs and convictions. This has led to defections from other parties from elected councillors aghast at what the Uniparty has become and betrayed by their party’s lack of principles, beliefs, and ethics.

But these defections are never entered into lightly and indeed the robust vetting process that everybody goes through rejects more people than it allows.

We have branch officers and councillors ranging in age from 18 to 65+. We have people from blue-collar through to white-collar. From labourers to CEO’s.

But amongst all of this is a shared vision – to make Britain and Cumbria great again.

We, the people, are being taken for granted by politicians across the spectrum and we can see this playing out daily with Labour breaking manifesto promises; Tories nicking Reform UK policies, and Lib Dems wasting public money locally.

The latest handover of our fishing waters to the EU just serves as another example of why you can never trust a Labour or Tory politician They have betrayed us all.

I believe we are at the start of a tsunami of public opinion that is finally waking up to the blatant corruption, public waste, complete lack of accountability, complete lack of credibility and ethics, and the funnelling of monies into pet projects and overseas nonsense that should never have been granted nor did the great British public ask or vote for.

This is borne out in the recent council elections where Reform UK came from nowhere to take over six councils. Councils where we will now be dredging through the public finances to find out exactly where your money is being wasted.

And I look forward to seeing the first council tax reductions come through proper governance and cutting of wasteful spending.

As has been made abundantly clear in our Contract with the People (a contract and not a promise); in the first 100 days of Government we would enact 84 separate actions to directly benefit and protect the British people. And yes, some of these will change in time as we begin our local policy forums shortly.

This plan has been fully costed and will come from immediate savings from wasteful government spending, the likes of which are unfathomable to most of us.

Instead, of pouring money down the drain and giving it to banks, quangos, net zero subsidies, and migrants, we would focus our efforts on the British people.

Policies such as:

Raising the income tax threshold to £20,000
Scrapping Net Zero subsidies
Drilling for oil & gas
Sending illegal migrants back home
Prioritising our service veterans and British people for housing
Protecting our farming and fishing industries from overseas profiteers
Revitalising the NHS
Student loan write-off schemes for doctors and nurses

There is nothing high-tax or high-spend in our plans but rather low-Government, low-state interference, and more growth and wealth for our people.

***

What did Mr Jenkinson write originally?

Read: I’m Often Asked Why I Didn’t Defect To Reform, Having Once Joined UKIP. Here’s Why I Won’t.

Share

Follow