Nigel Farage’s Reform Party has held talks about luring the shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick in a bid to destabilise the Tories, The i Paper understands.
Jenrick has publicly dismissed any desire to jump ship and there is no suggestion he has been approached or is involved in talks, but Reform insiders believe a resurgent Kemi Badenoch has put paid to his leadership hopes and this may make him consider a switch in the future.
It comes amid reports that Farage told donors he expected a deal or merger with the Tories before the next election.
Senior Conservative MPs told The i Paper they are open to the idea of entering into a pact with Reform UK at the next election.
While vigorously denied by the leaders of both parties, Tory MPs are not ruling out reaching some sort of arrangement with Reform to oust Labour from power.
Reform has dominated the polls since the last General Election. An exclusive BMG poll for The i Paper last week put them on 30 per cent, ahead of Labour on 22 per cent and the Tories on 20.
But Farage acknowledges a lack of experience of governance in his top team and several former Tory MPs and ministers, such as Nadine Dorries, have defected to his cause.
Reform-Tory alliance speculation
Reform’s breakthrough in last year’s general election, and the Tories’ collapse has led to speculation that the party could forge an alliance with the Tories to contest the next election, which is expected in 2029.
With results in the recent Welsh Senedd elections suggesting the Left could unite behind one party to stop Reform, there is a suggestion that the Right also needs to show a united front to voters.
On Wednesday, the Financial Times reported that Farage had told Reform donors that he expected his party to join with or make a deal with the Tories.
The claim has been denied by both parties, with a Reform source pointing to words by Farage that he would “never do a deal with a party that I do not trust”, and a spokesperson for the Tories saying: “The Conservatives will not be considering any deals or pacts.”
However, there are Tory MPs who privately believe that the party should keep its options open.
A senior Tory MP told The i Paper that it was too early to rule out a deal because it is “impossible to understand where the dynamics will be in-three-and-a-half years’ time”.
The MP said they would prefer a right-wing government involving a Tory-Reform tie-up to a Labour-led administration, but added there were “loons” in Farage’s party who they would not like to work with.
They said that much would depend on the relative polling strengths of Reform and the Tories ahead of the election. If Reform were dominant, Farage would want to call the shots of any deal because “he sees himself as King of the Right”, they said.
But if Reform dropped below the Tories in the polls they said they could see a scenario where Farage left parliamentary politics and brokered a deal between the Conservatives and Reform on his way out.
A BMG poll for The i Paper last week shows Reform falling back, but still aheadBMG’s pollng showed Reform had dropped five percentage points from its 35 per cent high, while Badenoch’s stronger showing had seen her potential vote share increased by three points.
Alliance would see ‘haemorrhage of support from Reform’
The i Paper is aware of another senior Tory MP who is lobbying for an “amalgamation” between the parties, while Andrew Rosindell, the Conservative MP for Romford, has publicly called for the “right-of-centre” to “come together”.
However, there are figures in both parties who are fiercely opposed to any deal.
A former Tory who defected to Reform told The i Paper that if there was a formal alliance there would be a “massive haemorrhage of support from Reform because many Reform members are people who left the Conservative Party because they were so utterly disillusioned”.
“It would have an impact upon the membership and frankly so far as the electorate were concerned, the view that they would take is ‘well we’ve got the Conservative Party who let us down over 14 years, why the heck should we support Reform if all they’re going to do is have an accommodation with that party?’”
For now, Reform continues to pursue a strategy of targeted defections from the Tories.
A Reform source said the party had held discussions about luring over Jenrick.
Such a “big beast” name would help destabilise the Tories, the source told The i Paper.
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A second Reform source said the party still had its eye on the “big prize” of a Labour defection but thought it would be unlikely to take place until closer to the general election.
A Conservative MP said Badenoch’s “energised” performance had frustrated Jenrick’s Tory leadership ambitions and “put Rob back in his box.”
Jenrick has denied any plans to leave the Tories, telling Times Radio: “It wasn’t very long ago that I was running to be leader of the Conservative Party so I’m not going anywhere.”
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