Kemi Badenoch has ruled out a pact with Reform. The Tory leader told the Daily Telegraph: ‘Nigel Farage has said that he wants to destroy the Conservative Party. ‘So I’m not…I have been given something very precious. I am the custodian of an institution that has existed for nigh on 200 years…I have to look after this thing. I can’t just treat it like it’s a toy and have pacts and mergers.’
Badenoch should think again. The truth is that many Tory voters are being wooed by Nigel Farage’s Reform party. Pretending otherwise is not going to cut it.
Reform MP Rupert Lowe’s rousing recent address at a Reform rally had me and the group of life-long Conservatives I watched a recording of it with, nodding along. We agreed with every word; Lowe is a true patriot, no-nonsense (like all the Reform MPs) and someone who is willing to put their reputation, their career, and even their life on the line in the service of this country. Yet these same friends, eagerly hanging on to Lowe’s every word, are quick to blame Reform for ‘splitting the Conservative vote’ in last year’s election, which saw Keir Starmer and his band of socialists storm into Number 10.
Herein lies our problem. As it currently stands, the right is split. Everyone knows that as long as it remains so, Labour will cling to power. Of course, Reform could reasonably argue that the right isn’t split, because the Tories no longer lean to the right. This is a fair observation when it comes to Conservative Party MPs, too many of whom resemble de-facto Lib Dems (CCHQ and the Candidates Team have a lot to answer for). But this isn’t fair when talking about the party membership. The fact is that there are tens of thousands of hardworking, ideologically sound, right-thinking and patriotic Conservative Party members like my friends, who – despite recognising that their party no longer represents their views and that Reform’s policies are more aligned with their own – cling to the party of Disraeli, Churchill and Thatcher precisely because it’s the party of Disraeli, Churchill and Thatcher.
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This logic is misguided and lacks substance. The argument that the Conservative Party will always exist simply because it’s had some remarkable leaders and has survived for so long, is deeply flawed. In 1760, the Whig Party was reaching its zenith; the so-called ‘Whig Supremacy’ seemed unconquerable and, as Geoffrey Holmes put it, ‘the long period of Whig oligarchy’ appeared to be never-ending. It was the party of Walpole, Pitt and Fox, and its glorious future stretched out before it. Less than 100 years later, the Whigs no longer existed. In the 1850s, it merged with the Peelites and Radicals to become the Liberal Party; by the 1880s even this party was haemorrhaging members over the issue of Irish Home Rule.
The hubris of the Conservative Party today is in thinking that they will survive simply because they always have. History suggests otherwise. It would be wise for current Conservative Party leaders to bear that in mind.
Meanwhile, Reform is understandably basking in its well-deserved success. They have every right to do so. For years, Nigel Farage has been ostracised and ridiculed by the Tories – mocked, ignored and taken advantage of (we mustn’t forget that, in 2019, Nigel agreed not to stand Brexit Party candidates in certain marginals, to maximise the Tories’ chances of winning those seats, thus ‘getting Brexit done.’) Reform’s meteoric rise in recent months highlights the disillusionment felt by so many Conservative loyalists who have been let down time and again by the party they have repeatedly put into power. Of course, Reform is also harvesting low-hanging fruit on the other side of the party divide with ‘red wall’ voters: the blue collar, white working classes who for decades have been overlooked, ignored and patronised by ‘establishment’ figures in both Labour and Conservative governments.
Nigel and Reform, unlike the Tories, are perfectly entitled to have inflated egos right now. Projecting their membership numbers onto CCHQ was an amusing little heist, and a well-deserved slap-in-the-face for the Conservative Party. Kemi Badenoch’s defensive response was equally ego-driven, although to give her due credit, in recent weeks she’s been rightly focused on holding Labour to account for their appalling cover-up of the grooming gangs.
But Badenoch must realise that our country, with its extraordinary heritage, ancient freedoms and deeply entrenched culture, is under such immediate threats, that if the Tories and Reform can’t put aside their rivalries and unite, then they – and we – will lose all that we hold most dear.
How to bring about this ‘union of the right’ remains to be seen. Some have suggested a pact or alliance, much like the one the Brexit Party made with the Conservatives in 2019. However, the old saying ‘once bitten, twice shy’ comes to mind – much of what Nigel was promised was never delivered upon, and he won’t be so eager to form a pact with the Tories this time around, especially in the light of his sky-rocketing success. Due to the aforementioned egos, neither party will fall under the other’s banner. Another option is that a third party – a sort of ‘holding company’ – be established, to absorb both the Conservatives and Reform without either having to swallow their pride completely. However, starting a new party is risky and expensive, and would only work if both Nigel and Kemi are willing to cooperate.
For years, Nigel Farage has been ostracised and ridiculed by the Tories
So we have to look to the donors; ultimately the narrative will be dictated by money. While we know about some of Reform’s ‘big hitters,’ there are dozens of disillusioned former Tory donors who have pulled their funding but haven’t committed to Reform. Like my friends who agree with Reform’s policies but can’t quite give up on the dream of bringing back Thatcher’s cabinet, these donors are biding their time; watching the shifting sand to see how it settles. They are unwilling to commit to Reform because they believe it to be too dependent on Nigel and lacking structure, but they won’t give another penny to the Conservatives when it remains saturated with ‘wets.’ These are the donors who can really make a difference.
In recent years, we’ve seen just how much ‘money talks.’ The ‘go woke, go broke’ mantra has taken hold, and those of us with common sense are no longer willing to indulge leftist illogical fantasies. When hedge-funders started pulling their funding from Ivy League institutions, some (although not all) of these woke institutions quickly realised on which side their bread was buttered and changed their tune accordingly. We need to see the same strategy applied here in the UK. Switching giving from the Tories to Reform is not the answer, because it doesn’t fix the problem of a divided right. The only solution is for donors to hold both the Conservatives and Reform to ransom until Nigel and Kemi are willing to enter dialogue with each other.
I write this as someone who continues to straddle the divide myself – the beauty of our parliamentary system is that we vote for individual MPs, not parties. So, as a conviction-led, ideologically driven free-thinker who puts my country before any party, I campaigned for both Jacob Rees-Mogg in Somerset and Nigel in Clacton. Does Reform represent my views more than the Conservatives? Of course it does. But I also understand why so many Conservative Party members who share my convictions continue to back the Tories; like reformed, Bible-believing Anglicans who argue that they shouldn’t be forced out of a liberalising Church of England when they still hold firm to the Book of Common Prayer and the 39 Articles, so many Conservative parties members stubbornly refuse to leave the party that ought to be conservative. In both cases, the argument is that those who have liberalised should leave, as they’re the ones who no longer believe in the foundations upon which their institutions were built.
I am well-aware that by writing this article and exposing where I stand, I risk ‘falling between two stools’ and alienating myself from both parties. If this happens, it is purely down to the egos of the parties in question. There is no longer time for party loyalty to trump conviction. We’ve seen where that leads – politicians placing their own careers and egos before the good of the country. Instead, this is the time for those of us in both parties who are horrified by the havoc being wreaked by Labour, and who love this country’s Christian heritage and ancient freedoms, to put aside our own vested interests and recognise that sacrifices must be made if we are to save this nation for posterity. Liberty and prosperity do not come free. They are costly. They may cost Nigel and Kemi and countless Reform and Tory members their egos and personal legacies. But while it might cost everything, it is worth everything. For our own prosperity, for future generations and to protect the very lifeblood of this great country, Reform and the Conservatives must commence conversations and begin working together, seeking representatives of the highest calibre who are willing to sacrifice their careers, their personal lives, their financial security and even their lives in the service of our nation.
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