The Conservative Party is going through one of the most difficult periods in its modern history. Over the past two weeks, the party has lost several high-ranking figures who have defected to Nigel Farage’s right-wing populist Reform UK, causing a sharp split and calling into question the future of the Tories as the main force on the British right.
The crisis culminated on 26 January when former Home Secretary Suella Braverman announced she was leaving the Conservative Party after 30 years of membership and joining Reform UK. At a joint press conference with Nigel Farage, she said that Britain was ‘broken’ and ‘overrun with migrants’ and that the Tories were no longer capable of offering real solutions. Her departure was the second high-profile blow in January — earlier, on 15 January, the party expelled Robert Jenrick, former shadow justice secretary and one of Kemi Badenoch’s main rivals for the leadership. Jenrick was accused by Kemi Badenoch of ‘secretly plotting to cause maximum damage to the party’ by moving to Reform, after which he lost his whip (party discipline) and soon officially moved to Farage.
Earlier in January, former Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi also joined Reform. Thus, in the first weeks of 2026, the party lost several prominent right-wing politicians who openly accuse the Tory leadership of losing its identity and being unable to stand up to Labour’s Keir Starmer.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch is attempting to portray the outcome as a ‘cleansing’ of the party. In a recent speech, she called the defectors ‘drama queens in a psychodrama’ and said that without them, the party would be able to return to centrist and pragmatic positions that would attract voters back. ‘This is not 2016. We are building a Conservative Party for the next decade,’ she emphasised, receiving applause at a party event.
However, opinion polls look disastrous: support for the Conservatives hovers around 18-20%, while Reform UK is comfortably in the lead with 24% and above. In some scenarios, analysts (including The Economist) warn that the right-wing electorate could defect en masse to Farage, which would make the crisis for the Tories existential.
Experts note that the party has still not recovered from its defeat in the 2024 elections (its worst result since 1832) and the ensuing period of chaos. While Kemi Badenoch is trying to rebuild the party from the right, many ordinary members and voters are expressing disappointment.
Political analysts believe that the coming months will be decisive: either Badenoch will be able to consolidate the party and offer a clear alternative to both Labour and Reform, or the Conservatives risk becoming a minor force in British politics.