The deputy leader of Reform UK says he’d be happy to see Labour get elected at the next election and the Tories get obliterated, effectively putting any chance of a 2019-style pact to bed.
Nigel Farage handed Boris Johnson a boost at the last general election after he stood down Brexit Party candidates in constituencies won by the Conservatives in the previous election to clear the way for his fellow Brexiteer.
But it appears that Rishi Sunak won’t be offered a similar deal this time around, potentially splitting the vote in many key seats.
Speaking to PoliticsHome podcast, the party’s deputy leader, Ben Habib, said Reform UK would be comfortable with Labour forming the next government if it meant “booting out the Tory party”.
Reform is trying to peel some Conservatives away with a new ‘defections unit’, which could entice members such as Lee Anderson, who says he was offered “a lot of money” to jump ship.
Habib said the current government “has been an utter disaster, they must therefore be booted out”.
“When you fail, you cannot be rewarded with incumbency,” he continued.
“If we get a Labour government and they do badly, which I expect they will, we will then boot them out, that’s democracy.
“And we’ll keep booting people out until we get proper governance for the United Kingdom.”
Habib added that what is needed is “a sea change in the way this country is governed, and only Reform UK has that agenda”.
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