Sunak told 'playing footsie' with Farage and Reform will cause Tory wipeout

19 February 2024 , 08:55

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Rishi Sunak has now suffered the most by-election defeats of any government since the 1960s (Image: PA)

Rishi Sunak has been warned that "playing footsie" with Nigel Farage's Reform UK will lead to Tory wipeout by a former Conservative chairman.

The embattled Prime Minister is under pressure after the Tories suffered two humiliating by-election defeats last week. Voters abandoned the Conservatives in both Kingswood and Wellingborough, handing twin triumphs to Keir Starmer's party. There was also a rise in support for Reform in both contests, with the Farage-founded outfit coming third in Wellingborough with 13% of the vote.

Mr Sunak is under pressure from panicking right-wingers to see off the threat of Reform by shifting further to the right. But former Tory chairman Chris Patten said chasing Reform voters would destroy the party's electoral chances.

Lord Patten told BBC's Westminster Hour: "I was chairman of the Conservative Party when there was a Conservative Party. And I think that one of the problems at the moment is that the Conservative Party is all over the place and there are bits of it that I don't really identify with traditional conservatism.

Lord Patten warned his party it 'won't stand a prayer of winning the next election' if it lurches to the right (Getty Images)

"The assault on institutions, the refusal to accept that attacking courts, lefty lawyers, or the rule of law, is not the way a Conservative Party should behave. I think the Conservative Party is deluding itself if it thinks it can behave like this and still go on and win an election."

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The Oxford University chancellor and peer warned his party against chasing would-be Reform voters in the wake of the by-election defeats. He said: "When you look at the fall in the Conservative vote in those by-elections, it was awful.

"The real danger of those results for the Conservative Party is because of the Reform Party getting 10% people will start saying, 'oh well if we appeal to the Reform Party, we can just add their 10% to ours'. That is complete drivel. If the Conservative Party starts playing footsie with the Reform Party it won't stand a prayer of winning the next election."

Mr Sunak tried to play down the losses as "difficult" mid-term elections - despite it actually being the final year of a five-year Parliament led by the Tories. He has made desperate pleas to right-wing and Conservative voters to unite to keep Keir Starmer out of No10 as Labour continues to lead in the polls.

Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock said he was confident the party would win the next general election and it will be "neither 92 or 97". "It's going to be 24 because every single election is different," he told Sky News.

Pressed on whether Labour will win, he said: "I'm convinced now that we're not going to lose... I will go no further than that."

The Wellingborough by-election was triggered after constituents ousted former Tory MP Peter Bone following his suspension from the Commons for bullying and sexual misconduct. The contest in Kingswood came after ex-minister Chris Skidmore resigned in protest against Government legislation to boost North Sea oil and gas drilling.

The Conservatives highlighted the low turnout in both contests, which stood at just 37% in Kingswood and 38% in Wellingborough. But Labour overturned majorities of 11,220 and 18,540 respectively, delivering the Government's ninth and 10th by-election defeats of the current Parliament and securing its second-largest swing from the Tories ever.

Lizzy Buchan