Andrew Rosindale joins Reform UK after leaving the Conservative Party.

Andrew Rosindale has resigned from the Conservative Party and joined Reform UK.

The former shadow minister and MP for Romford said the Tories were “irreparably bound to the mistakes of previous governments” and unwilling to take “meaningful accountability” for poor decisions.

He said he had spoken to Nigel Farage on Sunday evening before agreeing to join his party. The Reform UK leader called him “a great patriot” who “will be a great addition to our team..”

A Conservative source said Rosindale’s departure was a prime example of Farage doing a “spring cleaning” of Badenoch and that Reform was “welcome” to him.

Rosindale’s move comes after Robert Jenrick joined Reform on Thursday, hours after he was sacked from the shadow cabinet by Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who accused him of plotting a defection.

The 59-year-old, who was a shadow minister for foreign affairs before his resignation, said in a statement on Twitter that “the views and concerns of constituents like me in Romford have been consistently ignored for too long.”

“Our country has endured a generation of managed decline,” he said. “Radical action is needed now to reverse the harmful decisions of the past and chart a new path for Britain.”

Rosindale becomes Reform’s seventh MP and the third sitting Conservative MP to join the party, following Danny Kruger and Jenrick.

This week’s defections mean that – setting aside independent MPs, who do not vote in a block – Reform UK now has the joint fifth-largest party group in the Commons with Sinn Féin, which does not send any of its seven MPs to Westminster.

She is two MPs behind the fourth largest party, the SNP.

Nearly 20 former Tory MPs have switched their allegiance to Reform UK, including former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, who did so a week ago.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Jenrick said it was “very good news” Rosindale had joined Reform and added, “If other Members of Parliament were in a similar position, I’m sure Nigel [Farage] and the party would welcome him.

“But he has said very clearly that you need to make up your mind quickly because the recovery is accelerating.”

Shadow Welsh Secretary Mims Davis told BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour that Conservative MPs defecting over reform were “selfish and completely wrong.”.

He said, “I find it very confusing that these people who are saying they want to correct things want to be right-wing, but ultimately there is a lot in the reform that is very left-wing and frankly populist.“

“I really don’t think it helps people to argue that Britain is failing. People want to know that, yes, things are wrong but the people they elected are willing to roll up their sleeves and put themselves into the work that needs to be fixed rather than looking selfish.”

Rosindale has held the Romford seat in east London since 2001, although his majority dropped from 17,893 to just 1,463 at the last general election.

After switching to Reform, he cited the Labour government’s decision to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius and “the Conservative Party’s failure to actively hold the government to account on this issue both while in government and more recently in opposition” as one of the reasons for his defection.

“This sovereign British territory has been handed over to a foreign power by both the government and the opposition,” he stated.

Farage said, “The Tories’ lies and hypocrisy over the betrayal of the Chagos Islands have pushed her over the edge, and we are delighted to welcome her into our ranks.”

The move comes hours after the reform leader insisted that his party was “not a rescue charity for every frightened Tory MP.” And there will be no Conservative Party 2.0.

He wrote in the Daily Telegraph that Reform will not accept any more defectors after local elections on May 7.

A Conservative source said Rosindell “has been threatening to defect for months and as recently as Saturday was denying that it was happening”.

He added, “We are not going to be deterred from holding this disastrous Labour government to account.”

Labour Party chair Anna Turley said, “The stench of a failing and dying Tory party has now engulfed Reform.

“Nigel Farage is now unconditionally trying to improve his disastrous record,” he said. “The public won’t be fooled: the Tories failed Britain and the Reformers want to do it again.”

A Liberal Democrat source said the defection was “a turn for a career politician who was anxious to get a P45”, adding, “The public is fed up of hearing how Britain is broken by the same people who broke it.”

Generic held a press conference where he announced his defection to reform That the Tories “broke” the country and “betrayed its voters”, Britain is now “in decline”.

He later told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that the country needed a “new and exciting” leader who “had not been part of that failed consensus.”

Badenoch called it a “good day” for the Conservatives and said Generics is “Nigel Farage’s problem now.”.

In the Telegraph, he expressed his belief that the reform would fail due to its acceptance of “toxic individuals” who have the ability to “destroy organisations”.

“A movement based on grievances and serial infidelity is bound to fail, and they will soon confront each other.”

Correction – Earlier in this story, the breaking news version incorrectly stated that Rosindale was the seventh Conservative MP to join Reform UK. He is actually the third sitting Conservative to switch allegiance, taking the number of UK Reform MPs to seven.