Why the latest right-wing Tory MP to defect to Reform is a new low for Farage

Good old Aesop was spot-on when he said, “A man is known by the company he keeps”.

It’s a saying that Nigel Farage would do well to observe, or not. Does the Reform UK leader really care what others think? Does he sincerely believe, for instance, that Andrew Rosindell is a fine addition to the party roster?

The former shadow minister and MP for Romford is not somebody that the Tories, even in their present predicament, should miss. If Robert Jenrick has “something of the night about him”, as was said about by Ann Widdecombe about Michael Howard and has been repeated in relation to the former shadow justice secretary’s defection, then the latest Reform adornment inhabits a very dark space indeed.

Rosindell, 59, has chosen to major on the Tories’ lack of support for the Chagos Islanders as forcing him out. That’s what Farage also focused on, saying: “The Tories’ lies and hypocrisy over the Chagos Islands betrayal has tipped him over the edge, and we are delighted to welcome him to our ranks.” All very upstanding, as Rosindell accused the government and main opposition of having “been complicit in the surrender of this sovereign British territory to a foreign power”.

What Farage chose to ignore is the rest of Rosindell that ought to make any seeker of the highest office in the land think twice about welcoming him. It is a residue from a heap of right-wing detritus, an indelible stain that, no matter how hard Rosindell or his new leader tries, cannot be scrubbed clean. Rosindell represents a new low, even for Farage and Reform.

Farage might want to wonder why it was that, despite being an MP for 25 years, Rosindell was not appointed a minister by five Conservative prime ministers. David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak all saw fit to pass him over for promotion.

Campaigning with his trusty Staffordshire bull terrier Spike, the dog bedecked in a union jack waistcoat, he hardly conveyed an image the inclusive Tory party wanted to send. That came with support for the death penalty, detention of asylum seekers, membership of the hardline Monday Club (a breeding kennel for Reform) and with loathing of lowering the age of consent for gay people and same-sex marriage laws.

He has repeatedly voted against LGBT+ rights laws and defended the Thatcherite Section 28 law banning “promoting homosexuality” in schools. Fumed Rosindell: “Where would it end? You could finish up at a stage where the monarchy in this country is in a same-sex marriage and that would have constitutional implications.”

Yeah right.

There was his failed bid to introduce a law to create a special customs queue for people from countries where the Queen was head of state, and he wanted more pictures of Her Majesty and royal symbols to be displayed at UK borders.

In a row over the National Trust and colonial links to stately homes, he harrumphed in a letter to The Daily Telegraph about the ultimately middle-class charity, renowned for the courtesy of its guides and cream teas and scones, as being “coloured by cultural Marxist dogma”.

In the MPs’ expenses scandal, the same Daily Telegraph outed Rosindell as having “claimed more than £125,000 in second home expenses for a flat in London, while designating his childhood home 17 miles away – where his mother lived – as his main address”. Rosindell, between “2006 and 2008, claimed the maximum £400 a month for food”. “I don't think it’s unreasonable to claim £20 a day for food,” he told The Daily Telegraph at the time. “That barely covers the cost of my subsistence.”

In 2010, the BBC reported he had breached parliamentary rules by accepting subsidised overseas trips to Gibraltar and subsequently raising pro-Gibraltar issues in the Commons without disclosing the visits in the Register of Members’ Interests. He was later identified as among a small group of backbenchers who had little compunction in taking a high number of foreign jollies – more than their fellow MPs. His travel record included 16 freebies to Gibraltar and 29 to other far-flung destinations, valued at £45,000.

This is a man who sponsored the first “Erotica” event in parliament, insisting he was promoting the hosts who hailed from his constituency.

On the roll call of dishonour goes. He was a self-professed “huge” admirer of Chilean dictator General Pinochet. Someone, too, who questioned the ability of Rachel Reeves to do her job (she was then shadow secretary for work and pensions) in a possibly imminent Labour government because she was due maternity leave and would be caring for a young child when she returned to a ministerial post – prompting Rosindell’s boss, David Cameron, to call his comments “outrageous”.

If Kemi Badenoch said Robert Jenrick’s going was “a good day” for the Conservatives and that Jenrick was “now Nigel Farage’s problem”, she would be entitled to say it even louder with regard to Rosindell. But presumably, his new bedfellows, travellers and all, don’t see him like that. Rosindell should give pause to any serious political aspirant. Farage is desperate to be treated as that person – but is going about it in a funny way.