A new poll shows that over half (53 percent) of the British Conservative (Tory) Party’s members favor joining forces with Brexit leader Nigel Farage and his populist Reform Party. Compiled by the Popular Conservatism (PopCon) organization, the poll indicates that 70 percent of respondents favor a closer relationship with Nigel Farage’s party if not an outright merger.
Annunziata Rees-Mogg, head of communications at PopCon and a former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Reform’s predecessor, the Brexit Party, said of the results: “Every Conservative activist and canvasser knows people who had been Tories but voted Reform UK in July.”
Rees-Mogg’s brother, Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, a former Cabinet minister for the Conservatives, previously urged the party to consider an electoral pact with Reform.
Speaking at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, he suggested the Conservatives should step aside in nearly 100 constituencies where Reform had finished second to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party in the last election. Rees-Mogg argued that a strategic alliance with Reform would benefit both parties.
The Conservatives, currently amidst a leadership contest, experienced a massive loss in parliamentary seats after Britain’s July 4 snap election. Reform garnered millions of votes, many of which were from young voters. The party even outperformed the Tories with voters under 30.
Last month at the Reform Party conference, Farage did not mention a possible alliance with the Tories but said he wanted to professionalize the party.
