The Conservative candidate in the Greater Manchester mayoral election has switched sides to Richard Tice’s right-wing Reform UK Party.
Dan Barker was selected just three months ago as the Conservative candidate to take on the incumbent mayor, Labour’s Andy Burnham, in the May election.
On Thursday, he announced he was joining Reform Britain, becoming the second prominent Conservative to join the emerging populist party after Lee Anderson left the party in early March.
Mr Barker’s move came on a day when the reformers announced they had replaced two more general election candidates, after sacking one on Wednesday over comments on their social media feeds.
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A spokesperson for Reform said: “Reform is delighted to have Dan Barker on board. He is an excellent candidate and will be a great representative for Reform and Manchester.
“Today, he knows that if we believe in the future of this city and this country, reform will be to the future what the Conservatives are to the past.”
The Conservative Party has until April 5 to select a new candidate for the May 2 mayoral election.
Although Mr Barker is unlikely to win, his defection is a blow to Rishi Sunak as he seeks to present a united front to the Conservative Party ahead of local and mayoral elections.
The threat of reform is becoming increasingly serious for the Conservative Party ahead of the general election.
A YouGov poll released on Thursday showed the Reform Party’s support stood at 15% nationally, just four points behind the Conservatives and ahead of the Liberal Democrats.
Reform UK has sacked three general election candidates within 24 hours over comments highlighted on their social media feeds.
The party said Yorkshire businessman Roger Ho’s X account in his name had been tweeting content including praise for far-right activist Tommy Robinson on Thursday. announced that he had been removed as a candidate.
The reformers also called for Rutland and Stamford County to take action following revelations of various racist comments on Ginny Ball’s social media feed, including comments calling for the deportation of British-born black public figures. was removed from the list of candidates.
Later on Thursday, the party sacked Swindon South Reform candidate Benjamin “Bo” Dade.
The incident prompted the anti-extremism group Hope Not Hate to call for “millions” of British citizens to be sent to the country “so that we can rid ourselves of the foreign epidemic we are afflicted with.” This comes after he claimed to be a right-wing influencer who fantasized about being deported. and”.
Hope Not Hate said Dade announced a “policy roadmap.” mallard duck In late 2022, on a little-read far-right media website, he called for the deportation of “potentially millions of foreigners and their dependents who have been here since 1997.”
A spokesperson for Reform UK told the Guardian: Other parties may also learn from this.
“Obviously our vetting process is open and everyone is reviewed.”
