Nigel Farage has ruled out the possibility of making a deal with the Conservatives after announcing he would stand to become an MP – setting out his aim for Reform UK to effectively take over the Conservative Party.
After taking over as leader of Reform UK on Monday, Farage accused the Conservatives of betraying their party.
The former UKIP boss had dropped out of standing in these general elections, but made a U-turn after saying he had a “terrible feeling of guilt” for not running as a candidate.
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Farage will be the UK Reform candidate in Clacton, Essex – the eighth time he has tried to be an MP, having never previously succeeded.
A YouGov poll for Sky Newspublished on Monday, shows the Conservatives are likely to win Clacton, but that was before Farage announced he was running.
Asked whether he would do a deal with the Conservative Party, Farage told the BBC’s Today programme: “There are no circumstances whatsoever.
“We have been betrayed by a Conservative Party to which I have given considerable help.”
In the 2019 elections, the Brexit Party – the former name of the Reform Party – made a deal with the Conservatives where they did not run any candidates against the Conservatives in the 317 seats they had won in the previous general election, in an attempt to ensure that the Labor Party or the Os Liberal Democrats did not occupy these seats.
He agreed to the deal after Boris Johnson committed to leaving the EU by 2020 and pursuing a Canada-style trade deal.
Reform UK is expected to increase its vote share compared to the last election, but is still forecast to get just 10.1%, according to the latest YouGov poll for Sky News.
Farage has said he aims to win “millions” more votes than UKIP did as he tries to make Reform the official opposition.
The reform may not win more than a few seats, but it could help the Conservatives lose even more seats to Labor.
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Farage – who replaced Richard Tice as the UK’s reform leader – said he did not want to join the Conservative Party, but told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “I think the best thing to do would be to take it on.”
He said: “You can speculate about what will happen in three or four years, all I will say is that if Reform succeeds in the way I think it can, then a part of the Conservative Party will join us – It’s the other way around .”
Farage pointed to Canada, where “Reform did a reverse takeover of the Conservative Party, rebranded it and Stephen Harper – who was elected as a Reform MP – became Canadian Prime Minister for 10 years.”
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The latest YouGov poll shows Labor is on track to win a historic landslide, with an expected majority of 194 seats on July 5.
It would be the most seats by any party in any election since Stanley Baldwin won a Conservative majority of 208 in 1924.
This story originally appeared on News.sky.com read the full story
