Will Nick Timothy be the next top Tory to defect to Reform?

Robert Jenrick was expected to use his role as Conservative shadow justice secretary as a stepping stone to the leadership – but in fact moved across the benches to Reform. Might his successor in the role be about to follow him?

Tongues are wagging at Westminster that Nick Timothy – Theresa May’s former joint chief of staff, who only joined the shadow cabinet in January – might be the next top Tory to join Nigel Farage’s mob after his recent outburst about Muslims praying in public was defended much more loudly by Reform than from some of his own party.

Timothy caused controversy earlier this month when he described a mass Muslim public prayer at an open iftar event in London’s Trafalgar Square as an “act of domination and division”. He wrote on X: “Perform these rituals in mosques if you wish. But they are not welcome in our public places and shared institutions.”

His leader, Kemi Badenoch, defended his comments, saying Timothy was “defending British values” rather than “abolishing jury trials”, a non-sequitur referring to David Lammy’s plans to restrict some trials to the judiciary. But Timothy is said to have been struck by just how much more full-throated the support was from another leader, Farage, who went even further in his support for his position.

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Farage claimed that what happened in Trafalgar Square was “a shock” and “an open, deliberate, wilful attempt, not at the private observance of a different religion, but the attempt to overtake, intimidate and dominate our way of life”.

Reform, for their part, have noted that Timothy has been verbally sparring with Zia Yusuf, their laughably titled ‘shadow home secretary’ (who isn’t even an MP). Yusuf, unlike Farage, has said that Timothy “is not ‘brave’. He was literally Theresa May’s Chief of Staff, the driving force behind Mayism and its ‘burning injustices’ agenda”.

While in normal political parties this wouldn’t be a sign of detente, it is exactly the playbook which preceded Jenrick’s transfer, with him dubbing the former party chair ‘Zia Useless’ and Yusuf being apparently the most lukewarm on the defection. The pair now pose as best mates.

After his promotion, Timothy said people were “sick of the backstabbing” and insisted the Tories were “more united” under Kemi Badenoch than they had been for many years.

Were Timothy to be the next big defection, there would be an irony in that it is said to be his appointment as Jenrick’s successor which nearly drew Katie Lam to switch to Farage’s Turquoise Tories. Lam, an assistant whip talked of as a future leader (albeit mainly by Lam herself), is said to have seen herself as the next taxi off the rank were a vacation to arise, and to have been almost disappointed enough to defect. Coincidentally, at last year’s local elections, all of the wards in her Weald of Kent constituency went Reform.