The Tories may have watched Douglas Carswell’s re-entry into the House of Commons in silence, but he seems to be getting a reasonably warm reception from his old colleagues behind the scenes. He has already exchanged jokes and arranged to dine and drink with a number of them. For a few weeks this will send the whips into a spin, as they try to work out whether it really is just lunch, or a brewing defection.
But it wasn’t just Carswell who was nattering with Conservatives this afternoon. Nigel Farage, who watched his first elected MP re-join the Commons from a gallery, has also been talking to some of them. Philip Davies was spotted shaking Farage’s hand in the members’ lobby, while others tried to press the Ukip leader on the possibility that the Right may one day unite.
Farage told the MPs he spoke to this afternoon that there was absolutely no chance of a Tory-Ukip pact this side of the election, and certainly not under David Cameron. It was quite clear from the way he spoke that he holds a visceral hatred and distrust of the Prime Minister.
He also said that while he would find it easier to talk to Boris (this was once mooted as the ‘Borage partnership‘, which would at least mean the united parties could have a pretty new logo), he would also struggle to form a pact with the Mayor for the same reasons that he would avoid Cameron: he believes that Johnson’s stance on Europe – which has evolved from a rather more Europhile way of thinking – is purely for expediency rather than anything to do with personal principle. The one person he could work with, he maintained, was Michael Gove.
If the Tories stood back from fighting Ukip in the north, then Ukip might leave off Conservatives in their heartlands, Farage said. But that isn’t going to happen, even though Farage’s party is becoming the tactical voting choice of the Right in some areas (according to Labour analysis). But strikingly, Farage also acknowledged that it would now be more difficult to form a pact with the Tories because his own party contains an increasing number of left-wingers and has adopted some leftish policies too.
Tory MPs who don’t want to defect do still want to work out how to reunite the Right of politics. But healing the rift would have to involve significant concessions on the part of the Conservatives, and different faces at the top of both parties.
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