High-profile Tory defector to Nigel Farage's party backed Israel arms ban
A former British Conservative cabinet minister, who last year endorsed an arms embargo on Israel and denounced the "appalling destruction" in Gaza, has joined Nigel Farage's Reform UK party.
David Jones, a former senior Tory who served as secretary of state for Wales between 2012 and 2014, was the Conservative MP for Clwyd West in Wales until 2024.
He announced that he joined Reform on Monday, marking the highest-profile defection to Farage's anti-immigration party so far.
Jones is also the public figure most openly critical of Israel's war on Gaza to have joined the party.
In an interview with Middle East Eye in June last year, Jones said Britain should suspend arms sales to Israel and broke ranks with the Tory leadership by labelling Israel's actions in Gaza "disproportionate".
New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch
Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters
Support for Israel among Conservatives, Jones said, was "principally because the Conservative Friends for Israel have been so active in recruiting members, and one of the things I would like to have seen would be for the Arab cause to have been promoting itself just as actively as the Israel cause".
He told MEE: "There is undoubtedly concern as to the way that Israel has continued to prosecute its action in Gaza. It's disproportionate and you see the appalling destruction that's been inflicted on Gaza."
'I didn't experience any Islamophobia in the Tory party'
- David Jones, former cabinet minister
"You see people starving, reduced to eating animal feed, bird feed, grass. And the international community, which - let's be frank - has an instinctive tendency to support Israel, is becoming increasingly uncomfortable with what's happening."
On the floor of the House of Commons, Jones repeatedly raised concerns in 2023 and 2024 about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and Israel's legal obligations under international law.
Reform leader Farage has strongly opposed the idea of imposing an arms embargo on Israel and in February said he "loves" US President Donald Trump's idea of taking over Gaza to turn it into the "Riviera of the Middle East".
'The Arab cause is behind'
Speaking to MEE, Jones described the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 as an "atrocity" and added that he believed the Palestinian group was "quite clearly being encouraged by Iran into doing what it did".
"Israel obviously has the right to defend itself," he said.
Jones added that he had worked "to see the Arab cause more actively promoted" in the Tory party.
"I had connections with a number of Arab nations and dealt with them more regularly. We were arriving at a stage when Arab ambassadors were attending Tory conferences and holding receptions. But the Arab cause is behind."
Jones was dismissive of the idea that the Conservative Party has a problem with Islamophobia in its ranks, saying: "I didn't experience any Islamophobia in the Tory party, and I would have been in a good position to pick that up if it was the case."
On Monday, Jones said he joined Reform because it "is the party that best represents my views - and, I believe, those of many others who have become disillusioned with the two old major parties.
"Across the country, people are rightly concerned about the rising cost of living, the escalating crisis of illegal immigration, and the steady erosion of our national sovereignty," he added.
"Neither the government nor the official opposition is addressing these issues with the urgency or resolve they demand - indeed, the Government is actively surrendering our sovereignty at an alarming rate.
"Only Reform UK is demonstrating the determination needed to tackle the country’s many problems and to improve the lives of people across Britain."
Middle East Eye delivers independent and unrivalled coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. To learn more about republishing this content and the associated fees, please fill out this form. More about MEE can be found here.
