How credible are rumours of a deal between Reform UK and the Conservatives to “unite the right”? Asks Eliot Wilson

Last week, The Financial Times reported that Nigel Farage had told donors some kind of understanding between Reform UK and the Conservative Party before the next general election was “inevitable”. Whether a “merger”, a “pact” or a “co-operation agreement”, the implication was that Farage fears Reform UK might not sweep to power on its own. Instead, the right must maximise its vote to avoid being outmanoeuvred by a progressive coalition dedicated to its defeat.

Farage has largely denied any such plans. Observing that “sometimes people hear what they want to”, he said “I would never do a deal with a party that I don’t trust. No deals, just a reverse takeover. A deal with them as they are would cost us votes.”

Note two qualifications: he would not make a “deal” but did not rule out a “reverse takeover”. He also scotched the idea of working with the Conservatives “as they are”. We could be nearly four years away from the next election, and as Joseph Chamberlain said, “in politics, there is no use in looking beyond the next fortnight”.

It is worth remembering that, ubiquitous though Farage and his teal-tinted cohort seem, Reform’s dominance is still a recent phenomenon. Its showing at the........

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