Former Conservative armed forces minister joins Reform UK

A Conservative former armed forces minister has joined Reform, saying the Tories had failed the Armed Forces.

Sarah Atherton, who served as MP for Wrexham for four years from 2019 to 2024, said: “The Conservatives promised strength but delivered weakness.”

Ms Atherton served in the intelligence corps, before later training as a nurse.

In Parliament, she served as armed forces minister for 37 days after being appointed by Liz Truss.

She had previously resigned as a parliamentary private secretary to the Foreign Office in 2021 over Tory plans to keep sexual offences against female troops tried within military courts.

She quit the Tories in August, but had told Welsh-language broadcaster S4C she wanted to stand in the Welsh Parliament elections.

She had previously said the Conservatives should “embrace” Nigel Farage’s party.

Writing in the Daily Express on Thursday, Ms Atherton also criticised Labour’s “soundbites, shallow reviews and fudged spending figures”.

She said: “After years in Parliament, I came to the same conclusion many soldiers, sailors and aviators already know: the system doesn’t listen.

“Both Conservatives and Labour have failed Britain’s Armed Forces.

“The Conservatives promised strength but delivered weakness.

“Troop numbers are at their lowest in modern history.

“Recruitment targets repeatedly missed. Families still housed in damp, mouldy quarters.

“The Navy struggles to crew the ships we have, while the RAF mothballs aircraft faster than it replaces them.

“I rebelled as a Conservative MP by voting against the Armed Forces Bill. It was career-limiting, but the right thing to do.

For me, allegiance to King and Country always outweighs blind loyalty.”

She went on to say she had joined Reform because of its patriotism.

She wrote: “From its inception, Reform has been unashamedly patriotic, built on the core value of Britain first.

“It is the only party fighting to ensure the people’s voices are heard and the only one serious about restoring our Armed Forces.”

Ms Atherton will now join other former Tory MPs who have defected to Reform, including Dame Andrea Jenkyns, Nadine Dorries and Adam Holloway.

Elsewhere, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch hit out against suggestions by the Prime Minister that her party was “dead”.

Asked if Sir Keir Starmer was right in his characterisation, Mrs Badenoch told ITV Anglia: “He’s not right about anything. In fact, if the Prime Minister said that the sky was blue, I’d go out and check it again.

“The fact is, he wants an election where he has to face Reform, because that will be easier for him. It’ll galvanise the left. That will not happen with a Conservative government.

“Right now, what we’re doing is showing that we learned the lessons from the mistakes we made when we were in government.”

Sir Keir is “doing it deliberately because he’s terrified” of the Tories, she added.

Reform UK and the Conservative Party have been contacted for comment.