Nigel Farage has said the Tory “brand is ruined” and that a Labour government would be “out of control” without a strong showing for his party, Reform UK.
Farage, who announced on Monday he would be standing in Clacton having previously said he would not fight the general election, said he felt “betrayed” by the Conservative party.
The home secretary, James Cleverly, admitted on Tuesday morning that the Conservatives were facing a major challenge, after a YouGov poll on Monday night suggested the party could fall to 140 seats. It showed Labour’s Keir Starmer could win a 194 majority, bigger than Tony Blair’s 179 in 1997.
Farage said there were “no circumstances whatsoever” in which he would make an electoral pact with the Tories and repeated plans to engineer a “reverse takeover” of the party. Tory MPs have privately expressed fears that some Conservatives may defect to Reform before the close of nominations on Friday.
“We have been betrayed by a Conservative party that I gave considerable help to back in 2019,” Farage told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “I got rid of Mrs [Theresa] May by forming the Brexit party … and then I stood aside in 300 seats for Boris Johnson. And we were told that we would get control of our borders … I feel betrayed by them.”
He added: “Millions of voters feel betrayed by them and even though there are people in the Conservative party who I fought with during Brexit and other battles, they are part of a party well past their sell-by date. Their brand is ruined and what I am trying to do is to establish a voice of opposition to a Labour party that might be out of control.”
Asked on ITV’s Good Morning Britain if he intended to one day lead the Tory party, Farage said: “You can speculate as to what’ll happen in three or four years’ time. All I will tell you is if Reform succeed in the way that I think they can, then a chunk of the Conservative party will join us – it’s the other way around.”
He said his example was Canada. “Reform did a reverse takeover of the Conservative party, rebranded it and Stephen Harper – who was elected as a Reform [party of Canada] MP – became the Canadian prime minister for 10 years. I don’t want to join the Conservative party. I think the better thing to do would be to take it over.”
Speaking to Sky News on the day the Conservatives will announce an annual cap on the number of visas issued, to reduce overall migration, Cleverly said: “A vote for Reform is not going to create a Reform government. Reform is not going to form part of the next government, it is either Rishi Sunak and a Conservative government or Keir Starmer and a Labour government.
“A vote for Reform opens the door to a Labour government, and a Labour government will just open the door and wave people through into our country.
“Reform has always been a vehicle for Nigel Farage’s self-promotion. I think Richard Tice [the former leader] is now discovering that rather painfully.”
In his interviews, Farage suggested he was planning to ditch some of Reform’s policies. Asked about a policy on the party’s website on processing asylum claims in British overseas territories, Farage said: “I don’t think it’s terribly practical and I haven’t put it forward. I took over yesterday. Give me more than 12 hours and I’ll sort a few things out.”
He also said he would inevitably spend less time in the US promoting the re-election of Donald Trump in November if he was elected to parliament. “Certainly it would be a change of priorities,” he told Today.
