Following three weeks of speculation, Lee Anderson has today defected to Reform UK, giving them their first MP - /SimonGrayson/will-lee-anderson-join-reform-uk
At their joint press conference this morning, Richard Tice (Reform's party leader) has said that he expects more Tory MPs to defect before the next election.
With local elections coming up on 2nd May, will ay MPs from the Conservative Party or any other MPs defect to Reform by the end of April?
If any MP defects so that they are sitting as a Reform UK MP, this market will resolve to YES.
If any MP resigns their seat or is removed in some other way and registers as the Reform UK candidate for a by-election, this market will resolve to YES
If a sitting MP announces that they will be standing in the next General Election as a Reform UK candidate, this market resolves to YES
If none of the above have happened by the end of the day on 30th April, the market will resolve to NO
1,000
3.00The end of April has come and gone and there have been no further defections. This resolves to NO.
Will there be any defections before the general election?
/SimonGrayson/will-any-more-mps-defect-to-reform
Meanwhile, we've got local elections and a by-election tomorrow. Plenty of markets here:
/SimonGrayson/2024-uk-local-elections-how-may-sea
/SimonGrayson/which-party-will-win-the-blackpool
/SimonGrayson/blackpool-south-byelection-will-ref
/SimonGrayson/blackpool-south-byelection-who-will
Christopher Hope of GB News says that Reform UK sources claim the party is in advanced talks with up to 9 Tory MPs:
But both Reform UK and GB News are known to bend the truth from time to time, so maybe we should take this with a pinch of salt!