Lord Jackson has opened the door to a potential defection to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK over the Tory Party’s “woeful” failings on migration.
The ex-Peterborough MP, who later served as an adviser to then-Brexit Secretary David Davis, refused to rule out a switch to Reform UK after being a card-carrying Conservative for more than four decades.
Lord Jackson, 60, who was ennobled by Boris Johnson in 2022, has acknowledged for some time that Mr Farage poses a major threat to the Tory Party, having first warned Conservative colleagues about the rise of Ukip in 2012.
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The Tory peer has also expressed his glee about Mr Farage “annoy[ing] all the most smug and entitled people” and last week agreed with the Clacton MP that Reform UK should have the right to nominate members to the House of Lords.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Lord Jackson said: “At the moment, I retain the Conservative whip and support the party in the Lords in actively holding this terrible Labour Government to account in scrutinising its many sub-standard and damaging Bills.
“However, like many, I don’t believe the Conservative Party has adequately addressed its own abysmal final period in office, especially its woeful record on immigration nor set out yet a compelling and attractive alternative prospectus based on enduring Conservative principles.
“I don’t have any plans to leave my party after 42 years but I would also neither rule out joining Reform nor voting for the party but in any event, I believe an electoral arrangement is most likely as the imperative is to remove this damaging Labour Government.”
Reform UK has already secured 11 defections from ex-Tory MPs, including nine since the 2024 General Election.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage
|GETTY
Lee Anderson joined Reform UK in March 2024 following a spat about London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan.
The Ashfield MP held onto his Nottinghamshire constituency with his majority increasing notionally to 5,509.
Ex-Education Minister Dame Andrea Jenkyns also bolstered Reform UK's ranks last November, later becoming the Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire following the 2025 Local Elections.
However, Reform UK has also managed to secure defections from a number of other high-profile ex-MPs, including former Brexit Minister David Jones, prominent ex-Red Wall MP Marco Longhi and one-time Tory Party chairman Sir Jake Berry.
Conservative MP Stewart Jackson at Peterborough Conservative Club.
|PA
However, Lord Jackson would become a major coup for Mr Farage, given the Reform leader UK just last week demanded the ability to appoint peers to the House of Lords.
Mr Farage bemoaned the “democratic disparity” in the upper chamber that prevents Reform from having peers despite the party topping the opinion polls and hoovering up seats in the 2025 Local Elections.
In what Mr Farage described as a “modest request”, the Clacton said it was time Reform UK was represented in the House of Lords.
“Reform UK wishes to appoint life peers to the upper house at the earliest possible opportunity,” the Brexit supremo said.
The letter was sent to Sir Keir Starmer
| PAIn a letter to Sir Keir Starmer, Mr Farage wrote: "My party received over 4.1 million votes at the General Election in July 2024.
"We have since won a large number of seats in local government, led in the national opinion polls for many months and won the only by-election of this Parliament."
The Reform UK leader, who has previously called for the abolition of the unelected upper chamber, added: “The Greens, DUP, Plaid Cymru, and UUP have 13 peers between them but Reform UK has none. Furthermore, the Liberal Democrats now have 76 peers but received 600,000 fewer votes than Reform UK in July last year.
“None of this holds water any longer, given the seismic shifts that have taken place in British politics.”
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage at Kent County Council | PAMr Farage's decision to call for reform to the House of Lords to iron out the so-called "democratic disparity" also puts pressure on the Prime Minister, given that Labour's manifesto promised “immediate reforms” of the upper chamber in advance of a longer-term ambition to replace the Lords with an alternative second chamber.
However, Defence Secretary John Healey dismissed Mr Farage's demands, instead attacking the Clacton MP as a "Putin apologist".
He told GB News: "We really require all political voices, including from Reform and Nigel Farage, to weigh in as strong as possible, condemning Putin, condemning the invasion of Ukraine, and we have not had that."
Despite no Reform UK peers sitting in the upper chamber, Lord Rannoch, Lord Stevens and Lord Willoughby previously held the Ukip whip.