By Cameron Blackshaw

Reform has revealed it is speaking to “three or four” Tory councillors in the hope of recruiting them ahead of next year’s local elections.

It comes after Bromley Council’s former executive member in charge of finance, Christopher Marlow, defected from the Conservatives last week.

He said Reform “can deliver the change this country really needs” after leaving the Tories, whom he had supported for 20 years.

The right-wing populist party led by Nigel Farage has now gained its second councillor in the South London borough after Alan Cook was previously elected in a July by-election, becoming Reform’s first directly elected London councillor.

Both men will appear at a full Bromley Council meeting this evening (October 13), representing Reform in the chamber for the first time.

Cllr Marlow had been Bromley’s executive member for resources, commissioning and contract management since 2022 before his defection.

Having “lost faith” in the Conservatives earlier this year, he decided to speak to local Reform members and found the party to be filled with “principled patriots”, he claims.

Cllr Marlow added: “Although I have previously been a Conservative, I have always respected Nigel Farage for the consistency of his views on thinking that Britain should be an independent sovereign country outside the EU.

“He advocated that initially from the wilderness until victory in the 2016 referendum.

“The fact that he chose to stand down his own party’s candidates in 2019 to help ensure there was a majority for leaving the EU in parliament, shows that he puts the country before party.”

Cllr Marlow claims that all the conversations he has had with his former Tory colleagues have been positive since the announcement, and he wants the parties to work together “where appropriate, to promote the best interests of our residents”.

He added: “I have become active in politics because I want to achieve things, and I think Reform is the party that will achieve the changes that I think the country needs to see at both a national level and a local level.

“For the first time in a long time, I feel optimistic and positive, both about the future of Bromley, but also the future of the country.

“It will undoubtedly feel strange to face my former colleagues across the council chamber, but ultimately it is on political grounds and it is nothing personal.”

Cllr Cook said he was “very happy” that Cllr Marlow had defected to Reform. He added: “He is a real bonus for us. It has pretty much ripped the heart out of the Tory party in Bromley because he was their future.

“He is our future now. He is a young, intelligent guy, and he is what every party would want in their assets.”

Cllr Cook still wants to grow the Reform party at Bromley Council, and revealed that he is currently speaking to “three or four” more Conservative members who are hoping to defect.

Despite trying to hoover up sitting Tory councillors, he says he does not want Bromley to become “a second-hand Tory party” and he is aiming to “steal the best and leave the rest”.

Cllr Cook added: “The Tory party is literally dying in front of us, so there is no harm taking the good bits out before it collapses completely.”