Rishi Sunak yesterday ruled out an electoral pact with Reform UK after Nigel Farage suggested that he could stand down candidates to boost Tory fortunes.
The Prime Minister said ‘yes’ when asked if he was ruling out striking a deal with Mr Farage, Reform’s honorary president, who earlier in the day said he was open to ‘a conversation’.
Mr Sunak also warned that a vote for the rival party risks splitting the Right-leaning vote and putting Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer in Downing Street.
Polls suggest that Reform could cost the Tories around 50 seats at the election.
On the campaign trail in Devon, the PM said: ‘There’s only going to be one of two people who’s going to be Prime Minister on 5 July. It’s either Keir Starmer or me.
Rishi Sunak (pictured) yesterday ruled out an electoral pact with Reform UK after Nigel Farage suggested that he could stand down candidates to boost Tory fortunes
The Prime Minister said ‘yes’ when asked if he was ruling out striking a deal with Mr Farage (pictured), Reform’s honorary president, who earlier in the day said he was open to ‘a conversation’
‘So… a vote for anyone who isn’t a Conservative candidate, is a vote to put Keir Starmer into No 10.
‘If you’re someone who believes that we need to tackle illegal migration, then I’m the right person to be your prime minister because I’m the one who’s got a clear plan to do so.
‘And what we’re seeing across Europe now is, the penny is dropping, that our approach with the [Rwanda deportation plan] is the right one – having somewhere to send people who come here illegally, so that we can stop the incentive for them to come in the first place.
‘The only person who doesn’t agree with that is Keir Starmer. And that’s the choice at this election. He’s going to offer an illegal amnesty to migrants, he’s going to release everyone we’ve already detained and stop the flights.
‘That’s going to make us a soft touch in Europe, a magnet for asylum seekers.’
Speaking to The Sun’s Never Mind the Ballots show earlier in the day, Mr Farage dangled the prospect of a deal if he was offered something good in return.
Asked if a knighthood or peerage would be enough to stand down candidates, he said: ‘No, no, no, no.’
But suggesting he was open to striking a pact, which he did with Boris Johnson in the 2019 election, he added: ‘I’ve done them some huge favours over the years as a party.
Nigel Farage hinted he’s open to a general election deal with the Tories as Rishi Sunak faces a wipeout on 4 July
After a rocky start to the Tories’ election campaign since announcing the July 4 vote last week, the PM, pictured today, has seen little sign of his party eating into Labour ‘s huge poll lead
Mr Farage has continued to put pressure on the Tories over their handling of the Channel migrant crisis
‘Give me something back. We might have a conversation.’
Mr Sunak has faced criticism for chartering helicopters across the country for long distance journeys. But he arrived in Penzance, Cornwall, on an overnight sleeper train yesterday morning to hit the campaign trail in the South-West.
The PM later met apprentices at Wildanet Technical Training Academy in Liskeard after announcing plans for creating 100,000 extra apprenticeships by the end of the next Parliament with the savings from axing ‘mickey mouse’ and ‘rip-off’ university degree courses.
He then travelled to Devon, where he met a group of locals who have taken over community ownership of a village pub. The teetotaller PM sat with the pub’s committee and drank a pint of lemonade. He was joined by Mel Stride, Work and Pensions Secretary and MP for Central Devon.
Afterwards, Mr Sunak insisted his policy announcements were shifting voters’ allegiances. It comes after a J.L. Partners poll found Labour’s lead has slipped to 12 points, 40 per cent to the Tories’ 28.