A politics of conviction or a politics of convenience?

“For me it takes courage of conviction and belief to sometimes stay within something, like a political party where you have very different views within that, and fight for what you believe in,” Jonathan Gullis declared at the time of Lee Anderson’s defection to Reform. There was, he insisted, “absolutely not a cat’s hell in chance” he would follow suit.

Just weeks ago, the former Tory MP for Stoke-on-Trent North told the Daily Expresso podcast that he was “more interested in fighting for what Conservatism actually is” than in joining Reform UK. And then, with impressive speed, he left the Tories and joined Reform.

A series of defections have marked the past week or so on the political right. From three former MPs, including Gullis, Lia Nici and Chris Green, to the former Conservative business and Scotland Office Minister Lord Malcolm Offord, all making the switch from the Conservative Party to Reform UK.

So far former Tories seem to have been welcomed with open arms by Reform UK. Over the past year one switched straight over onto their green benches in Danny Kruger, another in Sarah Pochin secured her seat after joining Reform in March this year having previously been a Tory councillor. And recently Farage has issued an invitation to Robert Jenrick to talk about swapping teams – something readily dismissed by the shadow justice secretary.

Over the weekend, the latest was the still-Lord Offord announcing he will step down from the Lords in order to stand as a Reform MSP. He claims that the “fundamental reform” Scotland needs “requires a new, principled party”. Resigning his peerage on defection is the correct thing to do. Who knows if it would be happening if Offord did not have elected political ambitions (members of the Lords are barred from becoming members of the Scottish Parliament), but even if it is a by-product, it is a good one. If only he could now persuade the unelected Reform MP for East Wiltshire to follow suit, do the honourable thing and offer his constituents an MP whose platform they actually supported.

But the question of whether or not to stand down is far from the only confusion within Reform’s collection of Conservative defectors.

For while Offord resigns to pursue a Reform candidacy in Scotland, Zia Yusuf had only recently assured Reform supporters that the party would not prioritise ‘failed former Tories’ in selections.

If the Reform policy chief’s line doesn’t survive, as it seems destined not to, it would not be the first time Yusuf has been overruled by Nigel Farage. Take the recent approach to Jenrick, for example. It was only in June that Reform’s policy chief launched into a twitter tirade against the shadow justice secretary, accusing him of faking a right wing pivot. Now Yusuf’s party leader is actively welcoming the idea of discussions with the very same man. Happy camp?

But it seems everyone is at it with Labour set to reward their Tory defector, Iceland boss Richard Walker, a peerage. That’s the same Richard Walker who was on the Tory candidate list in 2023 hunting for a safe blue seat, now sitting in the House of Lords as a Labour peer.

Any defection is one too many, whether that is losing elected Conservatives, those who volunteer or those who end up with a peerage. It is a personal choice and I’m sure for some a deeply conflicting and difficult one. But for others, when reading their departing messages, one wonders about the true motivation for only now joining Reform UK while they continue ahead in the polls, and not when the party existed with pretty much the same policy platform more than a year ago.

Take Gullis, whose departure has been tinged with sadness amongst those in the Tory parliamentary party. The former MP, who stood to keep his seat in the 2024 general election against a Reform candidate, cited the party’s pursuit of a Net Zero agenda as a key reason for his move. Yet under Kemi Badenoch, the Tories lately have hardly been an enthusiastic disciple of Net Zero targets – one of her first major announcements was to declare earlier deadlines “impossible”. If Gullis simply prefers Reform, he might say so openly; but to dress it up as a response to policies the party is already unpicking is a matter of choice.

I can’t help but be cynical and say it strikes as a politics of convenience, just as it is a politics of convenience for Reform to embrace Tory defectors when it suits, stand them as candidates when it suits, block them when it doesn’t, and turn a blind eye to whether they vacate the positions they won as Conservatives.

You may very well be furious with the behaviour of previous Tory governments, but that is not changed by joining Reform UK. Instead think of the words of Gullis back in 2023: “It takes courage of conviction and belief to sometimes stay within something… and fight for what you believe in.”