Former Conservative MP Lucy Allan is in talks with Reform UK leader Richard Tice to stand for the party in the general election, i can reveal.
The outgoing Telford MP, who had said she was leaving the House of Commons, was suspended from the Conservative Party at the weekend after signalling her support for the Reform UK candidate who will stand in her seat at the election.
She is considering whether to run for Reform in the neighbouring constituency of Wrekin, it is understood.
A senior Reform party source told i: “Wouldn’t it be funny if Lucy decided to take the plunge and stand in a nearby constituency for Reform.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if she decided to stand for Reform in Wrekin.”
If talks go well, Ms Allan’s defection to Reform could be unveiled in the Shropshire constituency by the party as early as this week.
The Reform source added: “We had Nigel’s press conference announcing our candidate in Dover, and he’s making another big announcement tomorrow [Thursday].”
It would follow the defection of Lee Anderson, who joined the party in March after he was suspended as a Conservative MP for refusing to apologise for claims Islamists had “control” of London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
When contacted by i on Wednesday to ask whether there would be any further defections to Reform from the Tories, the party’s leader Mr Tice said: “Well its interesting, there’s still conversations going on.”
This week, Ms Allan publicly gave her support to Reform’s Alan Adams rather than Conservative candidate Hannah Campbell, who are both standing in the seat she is vacating.
While the Conservative Party claimed Ms Allan, who has represented Telford since 2015, had been suspended following a social media post backing Reform, she claimed she had quit the Conservatives so she could support Mr Adams.
“I have resigned from the Conservative Party to support Alan Adams to be Telford’s next MP,” Ms Allan said on Monday.
“I have known Alan for many years, and he is genuinely the best person for the job. I want the best for Telford and I can’t just let the Labour candidate have a walkover.”
On Tuesday, Reform’s honorary president Nigel Farage unveiled Howard Cox as the party’s candidate in Dover.
The motoring campaigner and former Conservative backer stood as the party’s candidate in London’s Mayoral election in May.
On Thursday, Mr Farage and Mr Tice will unveil the party’s policy to tackle both illegal and legal migration to the UK.
Mr Tice added that Reform was “very close” to filling its candidate list for all constituencies in the UK outside Northern Ireland.
“As we speak now, 630 packs of nomination papers are being delivered to the candidates by registered post via 10 post offices from our centre in the Midlands and they will be with all the candidates tomorrow,” said Mr Tice.
“Basically, we’ve got a plan A and a plan B. So that if for whatever reason someone can’t get them filled in, we’ve then got a plan B as a back-up. So, we are still confident we’ll field 630 candidates and I’ve got plenty of spare candidates over and above the 630 should we need them.”
He claimed that Reform is “doing much better than the Tories on filling our candidate list.”
Despite polls suggesting otherwise, Mr Tice said he expects his party to take seats at the election. He also believes Reform will win more votes than the Liberal Democrats.
Ms Allan was contacted for comment.
