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A Reform UK councillor has defected to the Conservatives, saying he became uncomfortable in Nigel Farage\u2019s party.<\/p>\n
James Buchan, who sits in the borough of Dartford in Kent, said he had struggled with the idea of facing his relatives while a member of a party whose anti-immigration policies spread fear.<\/p>\n
\u201cI stood for election with the sole aim of working for my community and getting things done for local families. Having had the opportunity to see Reform from the inside, I\u2019ve concluded that the party doesn\u2019t really have the experience or ambition to do that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Buchan said he wanted to be able to \u201clook my family in the eye and say, \u2018that\u2019s not who I am\u2019\u201d after Nigel Farage\u2019s party announced plans to end indefinite leave to remain status.<\/p>\n
He said \u201crelying on rhetoric and slogans isn\u2019t going to help real families in communities\u201d such as his and \u201cthe more I saw of Reform UK, the more uncomfortable I felt to be part of it\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThings like a proposal to remove indefinite leave to remain from all non-EU residents who are working here perfectly legally is an example that could be devastating for decent people who have built a life here and contribute to our country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Reform announced earlier this year that it would scrap indefinite leave to remain and replace it with visas that would require people to reapply to live in the UK as part of plans to tighten immigration.<\/p>\n
The councillor, who won his seat for Reform in a July byelection, said the policy created a \u201chuge amount of fear and anxiety\u201d and accused the party of having \u201ca pretty unfortunate way of treating people\u201d.<\/p>\n
A Reform source said: \u201cHe got elected in July 2025 as a Reform councillor. He should resign his seat but he won\u2019t because he knows he will lose under the Tory banner. We look forward to winning this seat back as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dartford\u2019s Conservative council leader, Jeremy Kite, confirmed the move on Friday and welcomed Buchan, who represents the Stone House ward, to the party.<\/p>\n
\u201cJames knows that getting elected isn\u2019t about power, it\u2019s about service and being supportive of people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Reform leader, Nigel Farage, has been under pressure in recent weeks after he chose to defend one of his MPs who made racist remarks, and the former leader of Reform UK in Wales pleaded guilty to bribery charges relating to statements in favour of Russia in the European parliament.<\/p>\n
Quick Guide<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>Show<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know.<\/p>\n If you have something to share on this subject, you can contact us confidentially using the following methods.<\/p>\n Secure Messaging in the Guardian app<\/strong><\/p>\n The Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. This prevents an observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said.<\/p>\n If you don’t already have the Guardian app, download it (iOS\/Android) and go to the menu. Select \u2018Secure Messaging\u2019. <\/p>\n SecureDrop, instant messengers, email, telephone and post<\/strong><\/p>\n If you can safely use the Tor network without being observed or monitored, you can send messages and documents to the Guardian via our SecureDrop platform.<\/p>\n Finally, our guide at theguardian.com\/tips\u00a0lists several ways to contact us securely, and discusses the pros and cons of each.\u00a0<\/p>\n Illustration: Guardian Design \/ Rich Cousins<\/p>\n Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n This article was amended on 1 November 2025. Dartford borough is in Kent, not in south-east London.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Reform UK councillor has defected to the Conservatives, saying he became uncomfortable in Nigel Farage\u2019s party. James Buchan, who sits in the borough of Dartford in Kent, said he had struggled with the idea of facing his relatives while a member of a party whose anti-immigration policies spread fear. \u201cI stood for election with<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[10780,13136,1199,10673,2082,838,3954,18513],"class_list":{"0":"post-31940","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-councillor","9":"tag-defects","10":"tag-left","11":"tag-partys","12":"tag-policies","13":"tag-reform","14":"tag-tories","15":"tag-uncomfortable"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Contact us about this story<\/h4>\n