A Tory donor, who funded Kemi Badenoch's leadership campaign, has defected to Reform UK.
Mark Gallagher, who gave Badenoch £2,000 for her leadership campaign last October, left the Tories around two months ago.
The revelation breaks amid the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, which kicks off today.
His friends have told GB News: "Mark likes and respects Kemi, still thinks she’s the best for Tory leader, but believes the UK needs stronger medicine than the Tories are able to offer."
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Mark Gallagher gave Badenoch £2,000 for her leadership campaign last October
|PAGEFEILD
A Reform UK source told Britain's News Channel: "Nigel and Mark have been friends for a long time.
"We understand he is very disenchanted with the Conservative Party."
One reason Mr Gallagher defected was that Ms Badenoch did not respond to repeated attempts to help and was ignoring him, according to Sky News.
A Conservative source said the donor "flitted between parties".
A Tory donor, who funded Kemi Badenoch's leadership campaign, has defected to Reform UK, GB News understands
|PA
An aide to Ms Badenoch added: "She gets 20 texts every minute from MPs, friends, ex-MPs, supporters, peers, people offering advice and so on.
"She endeavours to go back to everyone, but realistically, she's running the world's oldest political party, doing media interviews, having meetings, doing visits, and being a wife and mother of three young children.
"So, it would be churlish to get quite so upset about timely responses."
Mr Gallagher was a regular contact with the leader of the opposition's office and was a personal adviser to Ms Badenoch.
He is now believed to be working with Nigel Farage
|PA
A Tory source said Gallagher was an "early" supporter and adviser, and confirmed that Ms Badenoch sought advice from him.
Mark Gallagher founded the award-winning PR Agency, Pagefield Communications, in 2010.
He has featured several times in the Evening Standard’s Progress 1000: London’s top one thousand most influential people.
Ms Badenoch won the Tory leadership contest in October 2024, succeeding former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
A Tory spokesman said: “Mark Gallagher hasn’t been a member of the Conservatives since 2020, was a founding member of the Brexit Party, and therefore this can’t be described a defection.
“He made a very small donation to Kemi’s leadership campaign last year, but was open about remaining close to Nigel.
“As so often, Reform are overselling and underdelivering.”
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