Former Welsh MP defects to Reform UK
A Conservative former armed forces minister has joined Reform, saying the Tories had failed the Armed Forces.
Sarah Atherton, who served as MP for Wrexham for four years from 2019 to 2024, said: “The Conservatives promised strength but delivered weakness.”
Ms Atherton served in the intelligence corps, before later training as a nurse.
In Parliament, she served as armed forces minister for 37 days after being appointed by Liz Truss.
She had previously resigned as a parliamentary private secretary to the Foreign Office in 2021 over Tory plans to keep sexual offences against female troops tried within military courts.
Senedd election
She quit the Tories in August, but had told Welsh-language broadcaster S4C she wanted to stand in the Welsh Parliament elections.
She had previously said the Conservatives should “embrace” Nigel Farage’s party.
Writing in the Daily Express on Thursday, Ms Atherton also criticised Labour’s “soundbites, shallow reviews and fudged spending figures”.
She said: “After years in Parliament, I came to the same conclusion many soldiers, sailors and aviators already know: the system doesn’t listen.
“Both Conservatives and Labour have failed Britain’s Armed Forces.
“The Conservatives promised strength but delivered weakness.
“Troop numbers are at their lowest in modern history.
“Recruitment targets repeatedly missed.
“Families still housed in damp, mouldy quarters.
“The Navy struggles to crew the ships we have, while the RAF mothballs aircraft faster than it replaces them.
“I rebelled as a Conservative MP by voting against the Armed Forces Bill.
“It was career-limiting, but the right thing to do.
“For me, allegiance to King and Country always outweighs blind loyalty.”
Patriotism
She went on to say she had joined Reform because of its patriotism.
She wrote: “From its inception, Reform has been unashamedly patriotic, built on the core value of Britain first.
“It is the only party fighting to ensure the people’s voices are heard and the only one serious about restoring our Armed Forces.”
Ms Atherton will now join other former Tory MPs who have defected to Reform, including Dame Andrea Jenkyns, Nadine Dorries and Adam Holloway.
Reform UK and the Conservative Party have been contacted for comment.
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Another rar joins the Tories’ sinking ship and leaps for the Reform’s floating wreckage
She was a partner-director a micro-brewery in Wrexham, namely the Sandstone Brewery LLP. In 2013 was in receipt of a £5000 grant from the Welsh Government for small businesses. Atherton resigned as a director by the end of that year and the enterprise wound up. Her business partner lived over the border in Cheshire. Was the grant pocketed or repaid?
Most likely went straight up her nose…
What a coincidence she saying the Conservatives failed the armed forces. Conservative cuckoo now Reform MP Sarah Atherton for 4 painful years failed the people of Wrexham and Wales.
Vote Reform get Conservatives
Fuss a job!
Candidates for y Senedd have to live in Wales; last I heard Sarah lives in Chester. Secondly, all her interests seems to be around the armed forces and defence which are not devolved so what exactly has she to offer Wales as an MS?
No doubt thinks that she’s got more chance of hanging onto her seat with the fash than the fash lite…
“For me, allegiance to King and Country always outweighs blind loyalty”
😂 What about her blind loyalty to king and country lol
ha ha ha ha ha ha, my word, they’re all jumping on the bandwagon,
at this rate Reform will have to come up with a new name with all these failed hasbeen tories joining them