Could a Tory-Reform pact really work to oust Labour?

A new Techne UK opinion poll for The Independent puts Labour, the Conservatives and Reform in what is in effect a three-way tie, on 25 per cent, 24 per cent and 24 per cent respectively

- JOHN RENTOUL

As Michela Morizzo, Techne’s chief executive, observes, the Tories and Reform combined have the support of 48 per cent of voters,twice as many as Labour. If the “centre right” were to combine, they would be “unassailable”, she said.

It is true that if Tory and Reform candidates stood down in each other’s favour, and all of each party’s supporters voted for a single “centre right” candidate in every constituency, the joint Tory-Reform ticket would win an even more sweeping victory than Labour did last year.

This is Nigel Farage’s plan, according to Ben Habib, Reform UK’s former deputy leader, who said: “Nigel’s aim is to set up the best possible negotiating position he can between now and 2028.” If Reform overtakes the Tories consistently in the opinion polls, Farage believes he could negotiate an electoral pact from a position of strength.

What is to stop such a deal happening?

It would be hard to persuade the Conservatives to agree to a deal. Tory historians will know that it was an electoral pact in 1906 between the Liberals and the Labour Party that gave the newly founded workers’ party the foothold in parliament that it needed, eventually displacing the Liberal party as the Tories’ main opponent in a two-party system in 1923.