Senior Tory MP Esther McVey has called for her party to ‘let Reform win’ the upcoming Runcorn and Helsby by-election in a leaked recording.
In the recording, obtained by the Telegraph, McVey says the Tories should step aside in the Runcorn election to help Reform’s chances of winning the seat.
The by-election is taking place on May 1 after the constituency’s MP Mike Amesbury resigned after he was sentenced for punching a constituent in the street.
Reform are currently neck-a-neck with Labour in the polls.
McVey said helping Reform in Runcorn could be part of a wider electoral pact between the Tories and Nigel Farage‘s party in the next general election.
McVey said in the recording: “You’d probably say, yeah, let Reform win that seat because you might need them in the South West so we win a seat.”
She continued: “When we get to the general election, would I be looking at an electoral pact [with Reform]? Absolutely I would! We don’t want two right wing parties cutting our own throats and Labour getting in.”
McVey said this was simply “pragmatism,” and the Conservatives should give up seats where they came a “very distant fourth” and Reform came second.
The Tories are seemingly much more keen for an electoral pact than Reform are though. Whilst shadow ministers Greg Smith and Robert Jenrick have refused to rule out a pact, Reform leader Farage has said he has no interest in this, and is determined for his party to replace the Tories as the UK’s second party.
Last week, Farage labelled Tory MPs a “boring bunch of old b****rds” and accused Tory leader Kemi Badenoch of not knowing “what hard work is.”
He said there would be no right wing electoral pact between the parties, saying his party were aiming to replace the Conservatives.
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