Robbie Lammas, a Medway councillor who defected from the Conservatives to Reform UK eight months ago, has now quit the party, calling the move 'the biggest mistake of my life'.
Lammas, elected as a Conservative in 2021, joined Reform in October 2025 – a defection the party trumpeted as a boost. But in a BBC interview, he said: 'I'm going to leave Reform, I've had enough, it's not what I signed up to, and I feel I've been misled.'
“Reform councillor Robbie Lammas quits, calling defection 'biggest mistake of my life' and says he was misled.”
His departure is the latest blow to a party that has seen 21 councillors kicked out, 33 defect, seven suspended, one disqualified, 47 resign and five lose their seats – despite winning 677 seats in the May 2025 local elections.
At the time of his switch, Lammas declared his 'trust in the Conservative Party has gone' and praised Nigel Farage's 'trusted leadership needed to save Britain'. Now he says his defection was 'just used for a news story'. 'I was told at the time there would be lots of people coming over. There would be one or two MPs. I would sort of slip in quietly. I did not want to go for a fanfare,' he told the BBC.
Lammas, now sitting as an independent, also claimed 'lots of others from Reform have told me they too feel it was a mistake to defect but they're not in a position to publicly admit it'. He added: 'I find with Reform they're good at spin, but struggle with good governance.'
A Reform UK source hit back: 'We rejected him for a job multiple times – a failed Tory is no loss to the party.' Lammas admitted he was 'embarrassed' and hopes to return to the Conservative benches one day. 'I left the party I love because I thought the party was over,' he said, citing the Conservatives' lack of policy at the time and failure to commit to leaving the European Convention on Human Rights.