Maria Caulfield delivers pledge to Nigel Farage after defecting from the Tories: 'He is speaking to Britons!'

Ms Caulfield has become the latest Tory defection following Danny Kruger, whose move was announced earlier this week by Mr Farage.

During the press conference on his defection, Mr Kruger declared that although he was taking a "significant personal risk", the Conservative Party is "over".

Revealing why she chose to defect, Ms Caulfield told GB News: "I think it reflects what's happening in the public more widely.

"I talk to people all the time and people who voted Labour at the last election, Conservative at the last election or didn't vote at all, are saying that they'll be voting Reform come the next general election or in their next local election.

"So I think what's happening to elected representatives or former elected representatives like myself really reflects kind of the mood of the country, to be honest, and from all kind of political persuasions."

Highlighting Reform's "appeal" to Britons, she added: "Hard working people that go out to work long hours, feel like no matter how hard they work, they're not getting any better off.

"And so Reform appeals to them to want to do things differently rather than just changing who's in charge. It's about reforming the system and making it work better for people."

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Assuring that she still has "conservative principles" at heart, Ms Caulfield admitted that the Tories have "changed" in their political views.

She explained: "I've still got those conservative principles at heart of wanting a low tax state, a low interventionist state. We got Brexit done, but did we really take control of our laws, our borders and our money?

"I'm not quite sure that we got the people's idea of Brexit really done, so for me that hasn't changed, but the Conservative Party isn't really reflecting that."

Criticising the Conservatives further, the former minister added: "Even in the latest couple of years of Government, as someone who was part of that, we didn't make sure that people went out to work, were able to take home more of the money that they earned.

"We introduced more laws, not less laws, and certainly our borders were not controlled. And so Reform is speaking to that in terms of those principles, so I haven't changed, but certainly the political party that represents those views has."

Pledging her allegiance to Reform and assisting them in winning the next election, Ms Caulfield concluded: "I'm not particularly looking to stand again, I was an MP for many years, I was a candidate in a marginal seat and before that I was a councillor. I've been an elected official for a long time, and it's quite nice to be back in the real world.

"I'm back nursing, I get annual leave, I get days off, and it's quite nice having a bit of a stability for once, not every couple of minutes going 'is there going to be a general election' and gearing up for that. So I'm not necessarily doing this to want to stand again, but I want to help Reform get elected.

"And in my local patch, we've got a by-election in New Haven in a couple of weeks, and I'm helping Archie Wilson, who's the Reform candidate there.

"So politics is in my blood and I've got the political bug, that doesn't necessarily mean that I want to stand again, and I think that's true for a lot of people who are coming over to Reform.

"They want to help change this country and help Reform get elected so that at the next general election, we can get the country back to where it should be."