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Senior Tories warn party against panic Reform deal or change of leader
The Guardian
|April 26, 2025
Senior Conservatives have warned colleagues against "bloody panic", urging them not to consider doing deals with Reform UK or removing Kemi Badenoch as leader, as the party braces for a disastrous set of local election results.
Two former cabinet ministers warned against changing direction regardless of the result next Friday, with Andrew Mitchell saying that "talk of deals with Reform is misplaced" and John Glen arguing that Badenoch must not be "pushed off course".
Badenoch's party is already divided before the election in which it is expected to lose hundreds of council seats, after Ben Houchen, the Tees Valley mayor, suggested a pact with Reform would be necessary.
Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, also said he wanted to bring together a coalition of the right, though he insisted he was talking about bringing back voters, not a deal with Farage's party.
This story is from the April 26, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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