Farage:Reform and Tory Right must join forces

Nigel Farage has predicted the Tory Right may end up defecting to Reform UK after his party secured its best- ever by-election performances.

The former Ukip leader said that he and the likes of Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg ‘have to be on the same team’ in the future – and claimed Conservative members would choose him as their leader over Rishi Sunak.

There are growing warnings that Reform, which does not have a seat in Parliament, will split the Right-wing vote and pave the way for Sir Keir Starmer to enter No 10. But Mr Farage, who is co-founder of Reform, insisted that labour will win the general election regardless of whether or not his party stands.

His comments came after Reform, the successor to Ukip and the Brexit Party, came third in both of Thursday’s by-elections with 13 per cent of the vote in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, and 10 per cent in Kingswood, South gloucestershire.

Mr Farage told the BBC: ‘There are millions of people... almost half of that Conservative vote of the 2019 [general election] now feel let down, even betrayed, by what the Conservatives have done in government. So the reason they’re doing badly isn’t because of Reform. it’s because of their failure in government.’ He said there was ‘zero prospect’ of Reform agreeing to stand aside in winnable Tory seats.

Told this would increase the likelihood of a labour government, Mr Farage replied: ‘i think labour is going to win anyway. i think with or without Reform, the Tories are sunk below the waterline, so why not try and build a genuine political movement for change?’

Asked if he wanted to join the Tories, he said: ‘if you asked Tory party members right now, they’d vote for me to be leader and not Rishi Sunak.’

He added: ‘in 2019, the Right vote was united but the players on the centre-Right were united. At some point in time, people like myself and Jacob Rees-Mogg have to be in the same party.

‘Whether that’s Reform, whether that’s the Conservatives, whether it’s something new, i don’t know. But logically that wing of the Conservative Party and Reform, looking ahead, have to be on the same team.’

Reform leader Richard Tice said of the Conservatives: ‘People are realising that they’re tired, they’re old, they’re toxic. They’ve had

their chance, they’ve blown it. Frankly, they should stand aside now, having messed up, let me take on Keir Starmer head-to-head, i’d beat him hands down.’

Contrary to Mr Tice’s belief, some commentators believe Reform actually did worse than expected in Thursday’s by-elections.

Despite the favourable conditions of a proBrexit constituency and an unpopular Conservative candidate, Reform candidate Ben Habib finished third in Wellingborough with 3,919 votes – a 13 per cent share.

in the same seat at the 2015 general election, by contrast, Ukip came second in the seat with 9,868 votes (19.6 per cent).

And in Kingswood, Reform’s Rupert lowe came third with 2,578 votes (a 10.4 per cent share) but in 2015 Ukip came third with 7,133 votes (14.8 per cent share).

Polling expert luke Tryl said: ‘ given their poll ratings and the profile of Wellingborough in particular, i think the 13 per cent they got is at the bottom end of expectations given the circumstances and in neither seat did they play the role of spoiler.’

Tory party chairman Richard Holden dismissed the upstart party’s chances.

‘Reform aren’t challenging realistically for seats. This general election is going to be a battle between the Conservatives and the labour Party,’ he told BBC Breakfast.

And Mr Sunak said on a visit to essex: ‘A vote for anyone who isn’t the Conservative candidate, whether that’s Reform or anyone else, is just a vote to put Keir Starmer in power.’

There are also suspicions that despite attacking labour’s policies, Reform would actually welcome a future government led by Sir Keir.

This is because labour would be more likely to bring in changes to the voting system that would give the new party a handful of MPs for the first time.

Mr Tice told gB News yesterday: ‘We share with the lib Dems the goal of having proportional representation, which is the right electoral system enjoyed across most of the Western world. And if we were polling 13, 15 per cent, then we’d have sort of 80 or 90 seats in the House of Commons.’

Red wall Tory James Daly told the BBC: ‘i do find it odd that, for politicians who claim to be on the centre-Right of politics, they would see five years of a disastrous left-wing government to suit their own political aims.’

A Tory source said that Reform is only interested in ‘self-preservation at all costs’.

‘They would vote for me to be leader’