Former Neighbours star Holly Valance backs Reform UK at next general election

Former Neighbours star Holly Valance has said she will be voting for Reform UK at the next election - just one month after backing Jacob Rees Mogg to be next prime minister.

The Australian actress, 40, known for her role as Felicity “Flick” Scully, said she voted Conservative in 2019 but will now change her allegiance to Richard Tice’s party.

Speaking on the GB News Chopper’s Political Podcast, she said: “Last time I voted [for the] Conservatives, next time I’ll be voting Reform.”

She also revealed she wants former Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage, who is the honorary president of Reform UK, to lead the party.

When asked about Conservative MP Lee Anderson defecting to the party last week, she said: “Yeah.. I support anybody that sticks to what they believe in and isn’t a turncoat, and doesn’t do a million flip-flops and U-turns.

“So I have respect for that, even for like nutters on the other side, if you stick to what you believe and you keep reiterating that over years and years, I can always respect that.

“I might not agree with you, but I get that more than the changing of the minds and the flipping around and never having any conviction. I think people are sick of that.”

Mr Anderson, a former Conservative deputy chairman and MP for Ashfield, had been sitting as an independent after being suspended for suggesting London mayor Sadiq Khan was being controlled by Islamist extremists.

Just last month, Ms Valance attended the launch of Liz Truss’s Popular Conservatism movement in London. She also went to Boris and Carrie Johnson’s wedding in the Cotswolds in July 2022 along with her property tycoon husband Nick Candy.

At the ‘PopCon’ event, Ms Valance praised Britain’s shortest-serving former prime minister and backed Mr Rees-Mogg as the next prime minister. She told the conference she was “a lefty” when she was younger, but her beliefs have since changed.

“I would say that everyone starts off as a leftie and then wakes up at some point after you start either making money, working, trying to run a business, trying to buy a home and then realise what crap ideas they all are. And then you go to the right,” she added.

Her comments came after her billionaire husband praised Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and said it was “time for a change”. Mr Candy, a Tory donor, praised Sir Keir’s business ties and criticised Tory infighting.

Mr Candy told Bloomberg’s In the City podcast: “I think it’s probably time for a change. I think all this infighting in the Tories even now with talk of Kemi Badenoch replacing Rishi by mid-May with people that have nothing to do with…

When asked about reports that Mr Candy will vote Labour at the next general election, Ms Valance said: “It was just a miscommunication with the way he structured the sentence (on a podcast) in that he said: ‘Labour is going to get in and it’s time for a change.’

“It wasn’t: ‘Labour is getting in and I’m voting for them.’

She added that she would “assume” he would vote for the Conservative Party.