Overview
- Mendoza left the Conservatives and was named Reform UK’s chief adviser on global affairs, drawing on his leadership at the Henry Jackson Society.
- Reform leader Nigel Farage called him an excellent addition and praised his foreign-policy expertise as invaluable.
- The move gives Reform UK two councillors on Westminster City Council alongside Laila Cunningham, who defected in June.
- Westminster Conservatives leader Paul Swaddle described the defection as disappointing, and it remains unclear whether Mendoza will keep his committee posts.
- City A.M. reported that Mendoza has been sanctioned by Moscow and Tehran, and framed his appointment as a possible rebuttal to past claims of softness on Russia.