A Reform UK councillor has defected to the Conservatives, saying that once he had the opportunity to see Nigel Farage’s party “from the inside”, he found it did not have the experience or ambition to serve the community.

Dartford Borough Council member, James Buchan, was confirmed to have joined the party on Friday by the Conservative council leader, Jeremy Kite.

Mr Buchan will now be sitting with the Conservatives, which is the majority group which runs the council.

He won July’s by-election for a seat on the council.

In a statement, Mr Buchan said he “stood for election with the sole aim of working for my community and getting things done for local families”.

“Having had the opportunity to see Reform from the inside, I’ve concluded that the party doesn’t really have the experience and ambition to do that,” he added.

“Relying on rhetoric and slogans isn’t going to help real families in communities like Stone, and the more I saw of Reform UK, the more uncomfortable I felt to be part of it.

“I looked at friends, family, and so many other honest, hard-working people and realised that Reform UK has a pretty unfortunate way of treating people.”

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