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Chris, what can you tell us
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Yes, and of course we've been covering all week these defections from former Tory MPs joining the Reform UK party
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notably Maria Coulthul. Yesterday, Monday, was marked by Danny Kruger, of course
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the first serving Tory MP to jump ship to Reform UK. But until now, there's never been a defection
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by an elected Labour politician in England directly to reform. until now, because this hour we can reveal that Councillor Mason Humberstone
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who is a councillor in Stevenage, he has defected directly to Reform UK
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On social media, Councillor Humberstone says this. He's battled with this decision for some time
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but deep down I know it's the right call. It isn't ordinary, hard-working people in Stevenage
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and across our country who've left Labour. Labour has left us. The party he's joined, the Labour Party, he says, is lost without vision
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mired in scandal and too often speaking for a metropolitan elite rather than the people they're meant to serve
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When policies harm the British people and weaken our democracy, he cannot in good conscience support them He says he entered politics to serve with integrity and respect Today he joins a party that will put the British people and our great nation first
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He feels proud to be part of this team and gets ready to work. That is Mason Humberstone, who's the first elected politician
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to join Reform UK from the Labour Party directly. This could be the start of many more coming
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or it could be the only one. We'll wait and see. But this is a significant moment for Nigel Farage
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as he tried to turn Reform UK into a left and right party
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It seems to be of a left wing by Kevin Baden-Württemberg, for example
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the Tory leader, but until now, we've seen no Labour politicians join them
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We have the first. Chris Hope, thank you very much for that breaking news
1:56
Very interesting, Charlie, because, of course, reform is trying to build this, someone would call it a populist movement
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but a movement that's really leaning into the mood of the moment. people being proud of their country, fed up of mass immigration
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And it was always going to be inevitable that they start to attract people from the right of the Labour Party
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Especially from that so-called red wool, Miriam Cates. They need Labour figures to come along
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You do really get the sense now that they are going full speed ahead to get as many defections as possible
