A LOT of people are considering ditching the Tories for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, a Southend Tory councillor who previously quit the party for UKIP has claimed.

James Moyies, Conservative councillor for West Shoebury ward, did not rule out joining former Tory Group leader Tony Cox and Conservative Darryl Jones at Reform after being quizzed by the Echo.

Mr Cox resigned from the Conservatives two weeks ago following a leadership challenge before announcing on Friday he would join Reform UK.

Asked whether he would consider a change to Reform, Mr Moyies, who previously quit the Conservatives to join UKIP, said: “A lot of people are thinking about it.

“The Conservative Party has to start being a Conservative Party. That would be my preferred outcome.”

Mr Moyies added: “I think it’s a logical move for Tony to make. He’s looking to see what his political future is and his views are on the edge of Conservative and into Reform.

“I think there is a lot of people in the country thinking that way. They are a small group on the council as other groups have joined together. Our jobs as individual councillors is to represent our area and provide scrutiny to keep the Labour administration in check.”

Following the announcement, Mr Cox has insisted the Reform Party will become an “effective” opposition in Southend.

He said: “What we are looking to do is to actually to do the job that the Conservatives are failing to do and that’s to provide effective opposition to this Labour-led coalition.”

Asked what he would say to residents who voted him in as a Tory, he added: “What do they want me to do, hold a by election at a cost of £15,000?

“I’m sure residents would rather have improvements to pot holes rather than having another election. The amount of emails, messages and calls that I’ve had from people congratulating us on what we’ve done and are now saying Reform align with our values.”

James Courtenay, the new Conservative Group leader, said: “Tony Cox was the leader of the opposition until ten days ago so if he feels there hasn’t been effective opposition since May, he needs to look at himself.

“I’m really keen that effective opposition does not mean opposing everything.” It means looking at whether we can agree in principle but influence things to be better for the people of Southend. A lot of what the council does should be done collaboratively.”