By Alastair Lockhart

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A former Conservative minister has become the latest to defect from the party to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

Maria Caulfield was an MP until last year’s general election and now works for the NHS. She served as a health minister from 2022 to 2024.

It comes just a day after Tory MP Danny Kruger also made the leap to Reform and marks another blow for party leader Kemi Badenoch.

In a press conference with Mr Farage, he claimed the Conservative Party was “over”.

Ms Caulfield is the 13th former Tory MP to defect to Reform.

She told GB News: “If you are Conservative right-minded, then the future is Reform. The country is going to change a lot.

“The same people who thought that Brexit would not happen think that Reform will not happen. They are in for a shock.”

She added that she joined the party a month ago.

Ms Caulfield said: “I am sad for the Conservative Party. I could see that I have not changed but the party has become less and less what I believe in.

“Reform is about changing the system – they won’t change unless they do it differently.”

Both the Conservatives and Labour trail Mr Farage’s Reform in opinion polls and have lost a large number of council by-elections in the last year.

Although less damaging to Ms Badenoch than the defection of sitting MP Mr Kruger, Ms Caulfield’s announcement adds to the building sense of exodus from the traditional party of the centre right.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, East Wiltshire MP Mr Kruger went further than merely criticising Mrs Badenoch’s leadership of the Tories.

He suggested that it was now “too late” to save the Conservatives, even under a new leader such as Robert Jenrick, whose bid for the party leadership Mr Kruger supported last year.

He told the press conference he had been in discussions with Reform about defecting over the summer, but had not spoken to Mrs Badenoch beforehand, instead informing Conservative chief whip Rebecca Harris on Monday morning.

Mr Kruger also urged his colleagues to join him in Mr Farage’s party, saying: “I would hope that colleagues who share my view about the crisis the country is in and the opportunity that Reform offers to save our country.”

Shadow chancellor Mel Stride insisted Mr Kruger was “profoundly wrong” to say the Conservative Party was “over” when he defected to Reform UK.

Asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme about Mr Kruger’s comments, Mr Stride said: “Well, he’s profoundly wrong. I’m sorry to see Danny go, but his analysis is wrong.

“We don’t have an election now for another four years.

“It is certainly the case that we had a devastating defeat about a year ago, that we lost that connection with the electorate, that trust with the electorate, and it is also true that it will take us time to rebuild that.”

Mr Stride said the Conservatives were now holding the Government “ruthlessly” to account, which formed part of rebuilding trust between the party and the public.