Brexit boss Nigel Farage has said that Rishi Sunak and the Tories need to be “taught an unforgettable lesson” after the prime minister attempted to convince Conservative supporters that a vote for Farage would represent a vote for the left-wing Labour Party in the next general election.
Amid continued struggles in the polls, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak trotted out the played-out political tactic of using the threat of Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party coming into power as a justification for the British public continuing to back his government, despite failures to significantly reduce illegal or indeed legal immigration and the continued economic struggles facing the country.
With the Nigel Farage-founded Reform UK party (previously the Brexit Party) surging to third place in the polls even with Mr Farage — at least for now — standing on the sidelines, there are growing concerns among the Tory top brass that the right-wing populist party will all but ensure their defeat in the next election.
In a thinly veiled reference to Mr Farage and the Reform party, Mr Sunak told The Telegraph that “a vote for anyone other than the Conservatives is a vote to put Keir Starmer in power,” and that even more migrants would come to the country under a Labour government.
Responding to the prime minister, the Brexit leader said: “Rishi Sunak comes out with the same drivel we get from the Tories at every election.”
“It is as if the Conservatives think they have a divine right to exist and not be challenged. Even when I did help them in 2019, they squandered the opportunity to change our country,” Farage continued.
“His constant lies and spin on everything from tax to the Channel crossings are making me think that perhaps he needs to be taught an unforgettable lesson.”
Farage and the Brexit Party made a controversial decision in 2019 to agree to an election pact with former Prime Minister Boris Johnson to stand down many of the party’s candidates to give the Tories a clear path to a strong majority to finally leave the European Union.
However, with Brexit being largely settled, current Reform UK leader Richard Tice has vowed that there will not be a repeat of 2019 in the upcoming general election and that the party will challenge the Conservatives in every constituency in England, Scotland and Wales.
Tice, a businessman-turned-political campaigner, has argued that Sunak and Starmer are nothing more than “socialist twins” and that Reform is the only viable party to return truly conservative governance to the UK.
It remains to be seen if Mr Farage, who still serves as an honorary president of Reform, will make a return and stand for Reform in the general election after stepping back from frontline politics in 2021 after achieving his decades-long ambition to see Britain leave the EU.
Earlier this week, Tice said that his longtime political ally is still “assessing” whether or not a comeback is on the cards, but added suggestively: “Nigel is the master of political timing.”
British polling expert John Curtice suggested this week that a return of Mr Farage to the party could see Reform UK jump from around 9 per cent in the polls to around 14 per cent and therefore all but ensure that the Conservatives — who are polling around 24 per cent — lose the next election.
Although it is unlikely for Reform to be able to win many seats in the Parliament in light of the first-past-the-post voting system, Farage and his allies have argued that it is necessary for the Tories to lose if there is any hope of forcing the party back to its small-c conservative roots.