Nigel Farage has been tipped for a bombshell return to politics with 10 Tory MPs set to defect, Aaron Banks said.
Banks, the co-founder of the Leave.EU campaign and one of the largest donors to UKIP, appeared on GB News and said that Nigel Farage returning to the Reform party could lead to mass defection from the Conservatives in the coming general election.
Speaking with broadcaster Chris Hope, he said: “The polls are suggesting that the Tories are going to be completely wiped out. I think more Tory MPs will defect.
“They’re at a point where they can’t win as a Conservative but they might have half a chance as a Reform candidate.
“I know at least three or four MPs who are in talks and I’d expect it just to accelerate. This is the (Nigel) Farage factor.
“If he comes back and Reform picks up another two or three points in the polls…Richard Tice (the current leader of Reform) has done a good job but if you see them go up in the polls that’s really the hope that Nigel’s coming back.
“If he does come back and start to get traction, I think the Torys have given up, they know they’re gonna lose. They’re going to reemerge as a one-nation, soft Tory.
“(Should Nigel Farage return to Reform) I think 10 Tory MPs would walk across the chamber straightaway. MPs are in contact with him daily about it. If he does come back it would be on the back of something spectacular.”
Meanwhile, Deputy editor of Conservative Home, Henry Hill, said that Farage has a talent for “encouraging speculation about defections”.
He added that this is due to the fact “Farage realises his party, whichever that is, is most effective when it’s spooking the Conservatives into doing something”.
“He would lift the performance of Reform but, unlike UKIP, it doesn’t have a ground machine or an activist base or significant electoral victories. It only just managed to get a double-digit vote share in a few bi-elections.
“It’s a much less effective ship than UKIP was a few years ago and UKIP only managed two defections. So it will be interesting to see how many MPs really thought they’d have a better chance of keeping their seat with Reform.”
