“There’s a buzz at Conservative Party conference” says Kemi Badenoch - but presumably she doesn’t mean the eerie sound of an empty conference and the feedback on the microphones.

The only atmosphere in the conference hall in Manchester is probably one of looking about for who isn’t there and hushed conversations about the latest defections. And debates about who will go next.

In Kent we’ve seen the defections of (at time of writing) five Tory councillors to Reform, all of whom call their former party “over”, as part of the 20 across the country.

It’s clearly a co-ordinated strike during the Conservative Party conference to further demonstrate what we all know - Reform are the headline act, the Tories are on the way out.

But, while the momentum is certainly with Farage, will there come a point where sucking up all these ex-Tories becomes a hindrance rather than a help?

Will it become harder to pitch themselves as the break from the status quo if half of their representatives played a role in building it?

At the moment, I don’t think so - but if it continues it could be.

Disillusionment is the word of the day, with, for example, Medway’s Robbie Lammas saying the Tory party had moved away from him, rather than his views changing.

There is the cynical view which says these Tories are looking at the polls and want a political future regardless of whichever party it is in.

While we don’t want to be naive, we do have to accept the Conservative Party has, until relatively recently, had to house a wide range of views on the right.

But with the emergence of Reform there is a new vehicle for a particular policy set which would appeal to some.

For someone like Danny Kruger MP this makes sense, because he has a particular political philosophy unrepresented by the standard Conservative Party - but what about Nadine Dorries?

She’s generally a fairly middle of the road Tory and was one of Boris Johnson’s biggest supporters. She surely represents the exact thing Reform is supposed to be challenging.

But she’s a Reformer now too and if more of her branch of the Tories jump ship, suggestions that it’s just a party of rebranded Tories will be more convincing.

In the realm of the ship of Theseus, if you have plans to build the HMS Reform but half of the planks are wood from old Tory boats, what is the result?

Does it even matter to voters so long as Farage is at the helm? I think that might be the true deciding factor.

The councillors who’ve made the jump are being called on to hold by-elections - which they are under no obligation to do.

And with the polls as they are, they might very easily argue the result is a forgone conclusion.

But another certainty is that the collapse of the Tory Party and the end of the “buzz” will be when the last person out turns off the lights.