Donald Trump or Elon Musk should force a merger between the Conservatives and Reform UK, Dominic Cummings has declared.
The former chief adviser to Boris Johnson said voters should back Reform UK in the upcoming local elections and “start the avalanche” of opponents to remove Kemi Badenoch as Tory leader.
Reform is ahead of the Conservatives in the polls and its membership numbers have soared.
Outlining his vision for “regime change”, Mr Cummings wrote: “What to do? Summary: shove out Kemi ASAP, take over Tories, get Trump/Elon to facilitate a merger with Reform, tip in a third force of elite talent and mass energy so voters see an essentially new political force whose essence is a decisive break with 1992-2024 … break the coalition supporting Starmer, take over No 10, do regime change.
“Immediate action – vote Reform in all local elections and help start the avalanche to remove KB: push what’s falling,” he said.
“The government that takes No 10 in 2029 should not be ‘Conservative’ or ‘Reform’ or simply a merger.
“The Tories are dead in every way – talent, money, ideas, organisation, reputation – and their performance 2021-24 has left them strategically shattered.
“Reform-2024 version was almost entirely Farage, as he has said it had no real organisation, it has almost no infrastructure and isn’t an alternative government.”
Many on the Right of British politics fear Reform UK and the Conservatives could split the vote, leading to Labour winning again in 2029.
But the Conservative leader declared: “The Conservative Party is a broad church. When we had disagreements, what people saw was disunity. We’ve now got a place where we are unified.
“The idea that you just do something with a whole different bunch of people and it’s going to be fine is for the birds. Politics just doesn’t work like that.
“There are many people who vote Conservative, who, if they think that we’re having mergers or pacts or whatever with Reform, will go elsewhere.”
At a farming rally in Westminster, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said his party would not enter a pact with the Tories.
He said: “To make a pact with people, you’ve got to think: ‘I’m going to shake your hand and you’re an honourable person.’
“After the betrayal post the 2019 election, we do not believe them to be honourable. Simple as that, so the answer is no.”
