Nigel Farage has denied a deal or merger between Reform UK and the Conservative Party would happen before the next general election, following reports he said it would be “inevitable”.
Reform donors told the Financial Times that Farage expects his party to join with or make a deal with the Tories, but that it would take some time because he was wary over making a pact between the two.
But in a post on X, Farage described the story as “false” and said: “After 14 years of dishonesty & lies they should never be forgiven. The idea I’d work with them is ludicrous.
“They betrayed my trust in 2019 & we will ensure they cease to be a national party in May.”
Despite the Tories – alongside Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens – trailing behind Reform in opinion polls, the latest report suggested Farage may believe that ascending to power might not be possible alone.
It comes following a latest incident of in-fighting within the party, with one source telling The i Paper that a Reform-led council at the centre of a local regeneration scheme in Doncaster is “as mad as a box of frogs“.
Should the right’s vote be split, unity between liberal and left-leaning voters could keep Reform out of office in the next general election regardless of the party’s current performance in the polls.
Reform has welcomed 20 former Conservative MPs since last year, including former deputy Conservative chair Jonathan Gullis earlier this week – with the party’s donors.
According to the Financial Times, one donor revealed Farage had told them he expected a merger or some other agreement on co-operation between the two parties, but that such a deal would only be done on Reform’s terms.
That is reportedly in part due to Farage believing Reform holds more power, and in part due to him feeling betrayed by the deal he made with the Tories at the 2019 general election.
Then, Farage’s Brexit party agreed not to field parliamentary candidates in constituencies where the then-Boris Johnson-led Conservatives believed they could take seats from Labour, helping Johnson secure a significant Commons majority. However, the Reform leader has claimed that the Conservatives’ subsequent policies on key issues like migration constituted a betrayal of their election deal.
Meanwhile, another associated who met with Farage in recent months is reported by the Financial Times as saying that a deal of some kind is inevitable, even if it takes time to materialise, before the next general election – which must take place by August 2029.
“They will have to come together,” one Reform donor said of the two parties and the need to avoid fighting for the same parliamentary seats. “The Conservatives have been a successful political party forever because the left was always divided . . . If the right is divided, it can’t win.”
Farage dismissed the descriptions of the conversations, saying that “sometimes people hear what they want to”.
“After [devolved elections in Scotland and Wales, and local elections in England] next May, the Conservatives will no longer be a national party,” he continued. “I would never do a deal with a party that I don’t trust. No deals, just a reverse takeover.”
Farage added: “A deal with them as they are would cost us votes.”
The Tories, for their part, have largely rallied behind leader Kemi Badenoch in recent months and have kept many of their major donors despite last year’s crushing electoral defeat to Labour.
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In the first half of this year, the Conservative Party gained £6.3 million in donations, three times that of the £2.1m raised by Reform, according to Electoral Commission data.
Badenoch herself dismissed suggestions of a potential Tory-Reform deal earlier this year, saying she is “the custodian of an institution that has existed for nigh on 200 years . . . I can’t just treat it like it’s a toy and have pacts and mergers.”
The Tory leader did, however, fail to rule out a potential power-sharing agreement in Wales after the devolved election in the country last week.
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “Nigel Farage isn’t even hiding it any more – he’s happy for failed Tories to prop up his party, whether they choose to join Reform or not.
“This shady backroom plot will send a shiver down the spine of people up and down the country, and shows you simply can’t trust Nigel Farage.”
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