Senior Tories warn against election deals with Reform

Tory grandees have warned their party against doing deals with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK as the Conservatives braced for heavy losses in yesterday’s local elections.

- KATE DEVLIN ARCHIE MITCHELL

Senior figures hit out at what they said would be the wrong move “strategically, electorally and politically” after Kemi Badenoch did not rule out forming coalitions with their rivals at a council level.

Mr Farage’s party is expected to ride a wave of disillusionment with politics to win hundreds of council seats across England, as well as a number of mayoralities, at the expense of Labour and the Tories.

The party could also take one of Labour’s safest seats in the Commons, in a key Westminster by-election.

Amid fears of a lurch to the right, Kemi Badenoch is facing a revolt from Tory grandees who want her to toughen her stance against Reform.

On the idea of local pacts, former cabinet minister David Davis told The Independent: “The answer is no, absolutely not. We should not be [doing that] at all. After all, this is the first local government election after our defeat in July, it will reflect nothing more than the rejection of our 14 years in government. We have not had time to recover yet.

“Even if a coalition agreement was worthwhile, this would be the worst time to do it on every single count, strategically, electorally and politically.”