Nigel Farage declines to rule out Reform-Tories post-election pact

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has declined to rule out a post-election pact with the Tories, just a day after Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch rejected the idea.

The Clacton MP told the Press Association a pact before the next election is “extremely unlikely”, but added: “After an election, who’s to say?”

It comes after Mrs Badenoch used her Conservative Party conference speech on Wednesday to accuse Reform of wanting to “take us backwards”, adding: “To those who say ‘unite the right’, we are not uniting with that.”

It also comes a day after an internal review concluded that Reform did not break electoral law after senior figures discussed how to disguise foreign donations.

The Reform investigation, sparked by a Channel 4 News report on Reform’s funding, found two senior figures had “said things that were wrong, careless and in one instance untrue”.

But the 27-page report published on Wednesday concluded the proposed £500,000 donation from a foreign source discussed in Channel 4’s report “did not take place” and Reform had not commissioned polls paid for by undercover reporters.

A Reform spokesperson said the party believed the production company involved in the report, Verbatim Investigations, had “acted unlawfully” and said it would take “appropriate legal action in due course”.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch emphatically ruled out a pact with Reform on Wednesday (Jacob King/PA)

PA Wire

Mr Farage insisted the internal investigation was as thorough as an external one, and said the party would be launching legal proceedings against Verbatim “very shortly”.

Speaking in Accrington in Lancashire, he told PA: “No laws have been broken, other than the company that was taken on by Channel 4, and they have clearly broken the law, and we will be issuing legal proceedings very, very shortly.

“They were trying to encourage our people to give them advice as to how they could get round the existing laws, or frankly, just break the laws, and that of itself is a criminal offence.”

Mr Farage confirmed two members of staff, his long-time aide Dan Jukes and the party’s head of policy James Orr, are still suspended.

He said: “It’s all been reported to the police, and there’ll be an inquiry. I’m not concerned about the outcome, but they stay suspended.”

Asked about Prime Minister Andy Burnham opening the door to rejoining the EU, Mr Farage said: “If he wants to fight about rejoining the European Union, then someone please hold my jacket.”