FORMER Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns has become the latest to defect to Nigel Farage's party Reform UK.
She appeared on stage with the party leader at an event in London and became the 100,000th member.
She will run to be the party’s candidate for the newly created mayor of Lincolnshire on May 1 next year.
Earlier this year, she made headlines after her General Election campaign leaflet featured an image of her and Farage at his 60th birthday party.
Jenkyns, who served under the administration of Liz Truss, told the audience she was "joining the party of the brave", adding that "our once great country is at a crisis point".
She went on to say that while leaving the Conservative Party was "not an easy decision", she believed the "ship is sinking, and perhaps, sadly, beyond salvage".
"We need those patriotic bravehearts to be a true voice for the people, and Reform is that voice," she said.
She was elected to parliament in 2015, defeating the sitting shadow chancellor Ed Balls.
She served as an education minister in the period after Boris Johnson resigned as the Tory leadership contest was under way, and left government after the demise of the Truss government.
She lost her seat at the General Election in July.
When asked how long she had been thinking about defecting, she said she has “always respected” Farage.
“We are politically aligned. And how long have I been thinking about it? Well, I mean, I was tempted before the General Election, but I am a loyal person to a party," Jenkyns said.
“I might not be loyal to prime ministers, as we’ve seen in the past, but I’m loyal to parties, and I believed, as I said, in going down with that ship fighting.
“I was elected as a Conservative, and I got knocked out as a Conservative, but I feel, unfortunately, the party has become tired.”
Earlier this year, ex-Conservative Party deputy chair Lee Anderson defected to Reform after he was suspended as a Tory MP.
He refused to apologise for claims "Islamists" had "control" of London mayor Sadiq Khan.
