Conservative MP Restates Desire for Tory-UKIP Pact

Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg has once more called for a pact between the Conservative Party and UKIP. Speaking at a meeting of the Eurosceptic Bruges Group on the fringe of the Conservative Party Conference, the MP for North East Somerset said that the British right is dangerously split and needs some sort of unity if it is to keep Labour out of power next year.

Comparing the current split in the right to the divide in the Conservative Party over the repeal of the Corn Laws in the early 19th Century, he warned that if something was not done, it could usher In 20 to 30 years of socialist government in Britain.

Rees-Mogg also reiterated his idea that Nigel Farage should be offered the position of Deputy Prime Minister in such an arrangement, something that will generate considerable controversy on the left of the Tory party.

The MP for North East Somerset also warned against being overly critical of the two Conservative MPs who have defected to UKIP. He said that UKIP members are “separated brethren” and added that Conservatives should be “generous and polite” to people have gone over to Nigel Farage’s party.

Also speaking at the event, Breitbart London Executive Editor James Delingpole called for unity on the right, saying that most libertarian Tories and UKIP members share similar aims and ideas, and also lamented that so many people seem to put pragmatism ahead of grand ideas.

He added that, having known Prime Minister David Cameron at Oxford, he had seen him go “down the wrong path”, abandoning the ideology of Margaret Thatcher for something much softer.

This is the second time in the space of a month that Jacob Rees-Mogg has spoken of the need of a full pact between the two centre-right parties. Writing for the Mail on Sunday earlier this month, the MP said that, between them, the Conservatives and UKIP have nearly 50 percent of the vote, compared to the 43 percent that the left have.

He added that such a pact was necessary given Britain’s voting system, and that Nigel Farage would be a “much preferable” Prime Minister to Nick Clegg.