"The Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell had been tipped as a potential Reform recruit long before his defection from the Tories last weekend took Westminster by surprise. Yet as he and Nigel Farage basked in the spotlight outside parliament on Monday, more than 200 miles away in the town of Whitby, in Yorkshire, a 15-year-old schoolboy was also savouring the moment."
"EXCLUSIVE: MP Andrew Rosindell has reached an agreement to defect to Reform UK, Charlie tweeted on Saturday, prompting derision from other users of X and pressure from Rosindell's office to take down the tweet. But the following day, Rosindell, who was a shadow Foreign Office minister under Kemi Badenoch, announced on X he had quit the Conservative party with sorrow after 25 years and had decided to join Reform following a conversation with Nigel Farage earlier in the evening."
"While doffing their cap to the teenager, sources in Reform insist no conversation was taking place between Farage and Rosindell, who is understood to have been out canvassing with Tory activists in Essex when the tweet appeared. Rather, it is claimed information was fed to Charlie to act as a catalyst for the defection in the knowledge that the Conservative leadership already on alert after Robert Jenrick's defection days earlier would zero in on Rosindell, a known ally of the former Tory frontbencher."
Andrew Rosindell unexpectedly defected from the Conservative party to join Reform UK after a conversation with Nigel Farage. A 15-year-old media operator, Charlie Simpson, tweeted an EXCLUSIVE claiming Rosindell had agreed to defect, provoking derision and pressure from Rosindell's office to remove the post. Reform sources later disputed any prior conversation between Farage and Rosindell and suggested information may have been supplied to Charlie to catalyse the defection while Conservative leadership were already on alert. Charlie rejects that characterisation. The episode markedly raised Charlie's profile and illustrates a rising cohort of independent right-wing online journalists.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]