A senior Tory MP and former minister has said her party should let Reform UK win an upcoming by-election as part of a wider electoral pact.
Leaked audio to the Telegraph shows Esther McVey at odds with her party’s leadership over a potential agreement with Nigel Farage while speaking at the “True Blue Patrons Dinner” last month.
Reform UK leads local opinion polls in Runcorn and Helsby, which is holding a by-election in May following the resignation of Labour MP Mike Amesbury, who was jailed for punching a voter.
Despite the Tories being in distant third, Kemi Badenoch has strongly denied the opportunity of an electoral pact, arguing that Farage wants to destroy her party. However, there has been renewed pressure from some Conservative MPs as it was revealed that McVey privately suggested the idea.
Esther McVey said in Whitehall on March 4: “I’m a pragmatist, and I think Conservatives are pragmatists, and when we get to the general election, would I be making, looking at an electoral pact [with Reform]? Absolutely I would. We don’t want two Right-wing parties cutting our own throats and Labour getting in, which could happen. So we do have to be pragmatic.
“And Phil [former MP Philip Davies] is spot on, I know Nigel [Farage], I know Richard Tice, I know Lee [Anderson], I mean, I know them all very, very well indeed. And I’d sooner say to them, there’s a couple of seats you can get there, that we came a very distant fourth, and you came second. We’ll stay out the way. I want you to win it. And they can do the same for us.”
She added: “What you want to do is, like I said, where Ukip came second and we were a very, very distant fourth, like in Runcorn, like where Mike Amesbury punched his constituent. You’d probably say there ‘let Reform win that seat’ because you might need them in the South West, that we win a seat.”
Two opinion polls on Runcorn place Reform in the lead, with the Tory candidate trailing in third. Reform also narrowly came second in the seat in last year’s elections.
When approached by The Telegraph about her comments, McVey said: “The priority must be to rid our great country of this socialist nightmare government. Without a deal with Reform, we risk letting the socialists back in again and [the] country should always come first.
“Any deal would involve us standing aside where Reform are best placed to beat Labour and Reform standing aside in the majority of seats where we are best placed to beat Labour.
“I am not sure what is controversial about that – it is the statement of the blindingly obvious. The only person who benefits from ruling out a pragmatic electoral pact between Reform and Conservatives is Keir Starmer and people might want to reflect on that.”
A Labour spokesperson said: “Esther McVey is the latest senior Tory to talk up a coalition with Reform. A vote for Reform is a vote to let the Tories back in.
“The Conservatives broke our public services and Reform will make you pay for routine healthcare. Don’t risk it.”
