Farage 'suggests Tory party takeover after election' as he draws inspiration from Canadian politics
2 June 2024, 16:25 | Updated: 2 June 2024, 17:17
Nigel Farage appears to suggest he is plotting to takeover the Conservatives after the general election if the party suffers a catastrophic showing at the July 4 poll
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The Reform UK party's honorary president made a comment while campaign with leader Richard Tice in Skegness which appeared suggest he harbours intentions of reshaping the Tories from within.
Speaking to the Sunday Times, Mr Farage said: “I certainly don’t have any trust for them or any love for them. I want to reshape the centre-right, whatever that means.”
Mr Farage added: “Why do you think I called it Reform? Because of what happened in Canada — the 1992-93 precedent in Canada, where Reform comes from the outside, because the Canadian Conservatives had become social democrats like our mob here.
"It took them time, it took them two elections, they became the biggest party on the centre-right. They then absorbed what was left of the Conservative Party into them and rebranded.”
After being asked about a merger between Reform and the Conservatives in Britain, Mr Farage responded: “More like a takeover, dear boy.”
A senior Tory told the Sunday Times: “Our party needs to be able to come back with people like Nigel, where we basically go back to be that authentic Thatcherite party — his natural home.”
When speaking after he finished third in I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here in December, Farage said "never say never" when asked about the prospect of rejoining the Tory party.
Farage, who has been a member the Reform party since 2019 and helped to set up UKIP in 1993, has been a vocal critic of the current government and the prime minister Rishi Sunak.
It follows reports that a number of Tories have privately spoken to Farage and Johnson in a bid to get them to join forces and save the party from electoral oblivion.
Farage, who has previously stood for election to the House of Commons several times, has faced several calls to stand for right-wing party Reform UK, which he co-founded.
He said he had thought "long and hard" about putting himself forward for the July 4 vote, announced two weeks ago by Rishi Sunak, but said he had decided against it.
Mr Farage said that although the UK's general election was "important", US voters' choice between Mr Trump and Joe Biden in November has "huge global significance".
He said that he would support Reform as they seek to challenge the Conservatives from the right, but would "help with the grassroots campaign in the USA in any way that I can".
Victoria Atkins downplays rumours of a Farage takeover of the Tory party
Speaking to LBC's Lewis Goodall, Victoria Atkins, Health Secretary and Conservative candidate for Louth and Horncastle, said: "I'm not interested in Farage-ist fluff. The fact is clear that there is a clear choice at the election.
"It will either be Rishi Sunak, who has shown that through his leadership what we can do, putting our plans in place, putting our determination to act for the British people for the future.
"Against Sir Keir Starmer, who can't decide who should stand as candidates in his party, let alone presenting clear and original plans for the future."
