A close ally of Nigel Farage has hinted the Conservatives could merge with Reform UK after the next election, potentially led by Robert Jenrick.
Gawain Towler, a member of the Reform governing board and a former UK IP press officer who started working for Mr. Farage in 2004, predicted that Mr. Jenrick and a few other Tory MPs would defect from the Conservative Party to support Reform.
Mr. Jenrick would not want to lead "a rump party," according to Mr. Towler, who served as Reform's director of communications until last year.
“This is not a man who's gonna spend his time on trampolines and going down water flumes as a third party leader,”
he said on the PopConversations podcast, in a swipe at Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey.
“I could possibly see him bringing a small handful over with him, but it could work, there are all sorts of ways,”
Mr Towler added.
He said:
“Could I see a situation where in a post electoral sort of devastation, that sort of post-apocalyptic landscape of the Conservative Party after the next general election, could I see a rump Tories becoming sort of like the Liberal Unionists in the 1890s, Jenrick as a sort of Joe Chamberlain bringing his raggle-taggle army over with him.
I can't see someone like Robert Jenrick wanting to be the leader of a rump party.”
Prior to their full merger in 1912, the Liberal Unionists were a distinct party that forged an alliance with the Conservatives in the 1890s.
"Robert Jenrick will not be joining Reform UK,"
a Reform spokesperson stated in response to Mr. Towler's comments.
On the podcast, Mr. Towler also implied that Reform is being open to Tory defectors, claiming that the party "must win."
After accepting a number of MPs and former ministers from the Conservative party, pollsters have cautioned Reform that it could become tarnished by being too closely linked to the Conservative image.
Mr Towler said:
“There is that feeling from those of us who have been members a long time of what’s going on, why are we letting all these blighters in? They voted the wrong way, left, right, and centre. But there's also a realisation.
We have to win. We have to win. And we're not going to win from the 40,000 members that were there at the general election in 2024.
We're now on almost 250,000 members. We passed 245,000 this week. Many of those will have been Tories.”
The Conservatives were asked to comment.
What would a Conservative–Reform merger mean for constituencies where both stand?
The principal aim would be to avoid splitting the right-wing vote, which at the moment risks giving seats to Labour as a result of the first-past-the-post electoral system. Conservatively, by cooperating by standing down candidates in key marginals or outright merging and standing as one party, the right-wing vote could be pooled to maximise chances of winning more seats.
An immediate outcome, may be an informal electoral pact where the Conservatives and Reform UK commits to not fighting against one another in certain constituencies, where the Conservatives would be strong and Reform UK would be weaker.
This coordination would not be seen as a formal merger, but a tactical agreement to consolidate the right vote, without actually merging parties.