Tory MPs fear Nigel Farage’s potential political comeback could make “anything happen”, a report has claimed. Mr Farage, who led UKIP to victory in the EU Parliamentary Elections held in 2014, remains honorary president of the rebranded Brexit Party, Reform UK.
Reform is now planning to stand candidates in every seat outside Northern Ireland, according to leader Richard Tice.
A recent YouGov poll found 17 percent of voters who backed the Conservatives at the 2019 General Election plan to vote for Reform next time.
Mr Tice and his colleagues have been in discussion with senior Tories about possible defections.
Speaking about the possible threat from the right, a Tory MP told the Times: “If Farage goes all in, anything can happen, because the only person like him is Boris.
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“He can move numbers, he can move polls, he can move people, especially in this demographic.
“But if he’s just carrying on turning his attention a bit, it won’t matter; he’d have to be fully into it, with a plan, it’s got to be the Nigel Farage party, otherwise we’ll be fine.”
Mr. Farage has refused to rule out standing for a seat in Parliament for the eighth time.
He last stood in 2015 when he narrowly finished behind Tory MP Craig Mackinlay in Thanet South.
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Reform has sustained a steady rise in the opinion polls in recent weeks.
Speaking about the rise, Mr Tice said: “We’re going up in the polls because lots of people have realized that the Tories [are] no longer the Conservative Party.
“And actually the word that I invented a year and a half ago, the Consocialists, is now entering the lexicon.”