The Jewish head of a centre-right think tank and a councillor in Westminster has defected from the Conservatives to Reform UK and will become their chief advisor on global affairs.
Dr Alan Mendoza, executive director of the Henry Jackson Society, now joins Councillor Laila Cunningham – tipped by some to be the party’s next candidate for mayor of London – as its second councillor in the central London borough.
“Britain today is in abject crisis”, Mendoza said, adding: “At home and abroad, our leaders seem determined to chart a course of national and international decline. But the British people deserve better than this.
"And, in Reform UK, we finally have a party who will put our interests first, and ensure that our tomorrow is better than our today.”
He continued: “This is the party that I’m proud to join. This is the party that will bring change that the entire nation can be proud of, and which will restore us to the first rank of global powers where we belong.”
Welcoming him, Nigel Farage described Mendoza, who is married to Jewish Leadership Council chief executive Claudia Mendoza, as “an excellent addition to the Reform UK team”.
“His intricate understanding of foreign policy and experience in global affairs is invaluable. I look forward to working closely with him as we continue to shape our policy platform in the months and years ahead.”
Only last year the councillor for Abby Road ward had praised Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch in an article for the Daily Mail.
Reacting to her speech on immigration, he wrote: “Any Tories who still harboured doubts about the appointment of Kemi Badenoch as leader of the Conservative Party would surely have felt some reassurance yesterday.
“For now we should be thankful that after so many years in which there has been a vast gulf between political rhetoric and public feeling, the Tory leader is willing to tackle the subject.”
Asked about Mendoza’s defection on Wednesday, Kemi Badenoch’s spokesperson said she was not worried about losing more councillors to Reform UK.
“We wish him well, but we are getting on with doing the work of the official opposition, preparing for the budget next week”, and a Conservative spokesperson added: “I think Reform’s record in local government so far speaks for itself.”
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