Former Conservative Party chairman Sir Jake Berry has quit the Tories and joined Reform UK, declaring the smaller party the “last chance to pull Britain back from terminal decline.” In an article for the Sun published on 9 July, the 46-year-old ally of Boris Johnson said the Conservatives had “lost their way” and that both main parties had presided over a country that is “broken.” Berry, who chaired the Conservative Party under Liz Truss and served as Northern Powerhouse minister from 2017 to 2020, lost his Lancashire seat in last year’s general election but remains an influential figure on the right. His defection follows that of former Welsh secretary David Jones on 7 July, making Berry the second ex-Cabinet minister in a week to move to Nigel Farage’s party. Farage called the decision “brave,” saying Berry’s admission that recent Conservative governments had “broken the country” was unprecedented. The double defection deepens pressure on Prime Minister Kemi Badenoch, whose party is trailing Reform in several recent opinion polls and grappling with internal tensions over strategy and direction ahead of next year’s local elections.