Reform UK leader Nigel Farage on Wednesday rejected doing a deal with the incoming Conservative leader, insisting he was intent on replacing the Tories.
The Brexit figurehead was speaking as the four contenders bidding to succeed Rishi Sunak geared up to make their pitch to Tory members at the party’s conference in Birmingham, following its shattering election loss to Labour.
“They all think with a new leader ‘it’ll all be fine, all the voters will come back to us’,” Mr Farage told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
“And what they don’t understand is the Conservative brand is completely damaged, they have no chance of winning the next election.”
The election saw Mr Farage and four other Reform candidates elected to the Commons, while the Tories slumped to 121 MPs.
Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly, Robert Jenrick and Tom Tugendhat are competing to take over the Conservative Party.
The Reform leader said: “There would be no deal with them.
“I wouldn’t trust them anyway - they have a pattern of behaviour pretending to be one thing and then when they’re in government, being quite the opposite.
“And, frankly, what I’m trying to do with Reform is replace them.”
Mr Farage again defended his role in pulling Britain out of the European Union despite the poor returns delivered by Brexit so far.
Asked if he was proud of Brexit, he said: “Do I think getting back our independence was the right thing to do? You bet your life.
“Do I think we’ve handled it well? Good Lord, no.”
Among the Tory hopefuls, Mr Cleverly was expected to issue a veiled warning to his rivals including Mr Jenrick not to try to outflank Mr Farage on the Right.
“We will not win back voters by pretending to be something we’re not. We win back voters by being honest, by being professional, by being Conservative,” the shadow home secretary was set to say.
He will add that Mr Farage’s party “didn’t deliver Brexit, we did. Reform didn’t cut immigration, I did. And mark my words, we will beat Reform by being the best version of ourselves”.
