GB News halted for 'shock' Reform announcement in humiliating blow for Starmer

GB News was halted to issue a breaking news announcement over the latest Tory MP joining Reform UK. The news channel had to cut away from regular broadcasting to discuss the important news that former Tory MP and NHS nurse Maria Caulfield has joined Reform UK, becoming the 13th Conservative defector. It comes just after Danny Kruger defected on Monday to Nigel Farage's political party. On GB News, Christopher Hope reveals Maria told him: "The same people who thought Brexit wouldn't happen think Reform won't happen, they're in for a shock."

It has been revealed that Maria joined Reform UK a month ago, and this news will be alarming for Prime Minister Keir Starmer. She served as a health minister from 2022 to 2024. She said to GB News: "I have joined. My husband joined a few months ago and I joined a month ago."

Other Conservative MPs who have joined Reform include Lee Anderson, Nadine Dorries, Sir Jake Berry, Adam Holloway, Anne Marie Morris, Sir David Jones, Marco Longhi, Ross Thomson, Dame Andrea Jenkyns, Aidan Burley, Alan Amos, and Henry Smith.

According to GB News, Ms Caulfield remarked: "The [Reform] party needs a lot of experience of people who know the system and can talk about this."

She added: "I am sad for the Conservative Party. I could see that I have not changed but the party has become less and less what I believe in."

She continued: "We let people down over what Brexit meant on laws, money and borders. We took back control but we did not do anything about it."

This news will not be welcomed by Keir Starmer, who is currently facing immense pressure following the departures of Lord Mandelson and Angela Rayner.

It has been reported that Parliament will hold an emergency meeting today to grill the Labour Government on hiring Mandelson and whether Starmer knew about emails between Mandelson and the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.