After the 4 July wipeout last year, Ben Houchen became the most senior Conservative left in public office across the UK. So it is intriguing then to hear the Tees Valley mayor make a series of remarks that are not entirely helpful to party leader, Kemi Badenoch. First, there were his comments last month to PoliticsHome in which Houchen warned that:
We do not live in a world of academia and think tanks. That’s not what modern politics is about. It’s a street fight. You’ve got to get out there. You’ve got to dig your nails in. You’ve got to dig your heels, and you’ve got to make progress one inch at a time. We’re not doing enough to earn the respect from others, journalists, political parties or the public, because we’re not doing that.
Whomever could he mean? Then, he told Politico this week that he wanted to see a ‘coming together’ of the two rightwing parties – despite Badenoch explicitly ruling out such a pact. In the wake of the row over Robert Jenrick’s leaked recording, Houchen declared that an accommodation ought to be found:
I don’t know whether it’s a merger … [or] a pact of trust and confidence or whatever … But if we want to make sure that there is a sensible centre-right party leading this country, then there is going to have to be a coming together of Reform and the Conservative party in some way.
And today, appearing on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Lord Houchen said:
If, at the next election, there are a significant number of MPs in the Tory Party and Reform that create a significant majority then, obviously, there is going to be a conversation to form a coalition or some sort of pact. I am talking about the practicalities of keeping Labour out of government because we have seen what they have done in the last 10 months.
No wonder talk of some future deal isn’t going away anytime soon…
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