Key Reform UK moves that prove Nigel Farage is set on smashing uniparty system

OPINION

Reform UK clearly realises the risks of becoming a dumping ground for former and existing Conservative MPs. This week party sources told the Mail on Sunday it would spurn any attempt by former PM Liz Truss or former Home Secretary Suella Braverman to defect to Reform. The reason? Because both remain so unpopular they would "damage Reform’s public image".

This by the way comes hot on the heels of defections by former Tory party chairman Sir Jake Berry and former Welsh Secretary Sir David Jones. While the defection of former Tory MPs is, at one level, a propaganda coup for Nigel Farage's party, it could also be grist to the mill for a Labour government keen to paint Reform as little more than as a reanimated Conservative Party.

This characterisation is of course absurd. Reform has carved out a position marrying economic liberalism and social conservatism with government interventionism in the national interest.

Still, mud sticks, and Farage knows it, especially as Reform looks to court former Labour voters, such as those who got Reform over the finish line in the recent Runcorn by-election.

More broadly, Reform's selling point is that it offers an alternative to the two-cheeks-of-the-same-backside uniparty. Hard to sell yourself as the shiny new thing of British politics if your ranks are stuffed with old hands from the bad old days of Tory misrule.

This comes as Reform keeps climbing in the polls. Find Out Now puts Reform nine points clear in its latest poll (up from eight), while Techne has Reform seven points ahead now (up from five).

A few strategic defections - especially from sitting MPs - would no doubt boost Reform and help swell the party's presence in Parliament, perhaps encouraging others to jump ship.

But, aside from the danger of guilt by association, Farage won't want another Douglas Carswell situation, or anything which risks future embarrassment to Reform.

Another risk is mass defections weaken Tory leader Kemi Badenoch too much. If ousted, a new leader might (might!) help turn the tide for the Conservatives. That's the last thing Reform needs.

Reform then must move with caution when it comes to defections. Farage's party won't want to be a lifeboat for rats leaving a sinking ship even it there are propaganda coups to be had.

Likely that Sir Jake and Sir David are not the last to jump ship, and maybe Reform would welcome Truss and Braverman, big names they are. But risk lies ahead for a party selling itself as insurgent in welcoming the waifs and strays of a declining Conservative Party.