Reform UK plans to attract talent from other political parties – most obviously the Conservatives – represents both a huge opportunity as well as a risk. An opportunity both at national and local level since old Tory hands often have the skills and experience Nigel Farage’s party needs. Moreover, what could symbolise the eclipsing of the Conservatives by Reform better than former Tory councillors or MPs now representing the insurgent party?
New MP Sarah Pochin is part of this trend as is newly elected mayor Andrea Jenkyns. Imagine a current Tory MP crossing over. The impact could be both seismic and trendsetting. Yet there are risks as well. True, Reform is full of former Tory members – Messrs Farage and Tice among them – but, broadly-speaking; the Conservative Party is hardly a brand with a glowing reputation.
In 1983 the Thatcher government ran a successful election broadcast asking folks “do you remember what it was like then, in the Winter of Discontent?’.
Voters did, and the bitter memory of 1978-79 was etched enough in the minds of the British people to give the Tories a landslide.
Well, voters today haven’t forgotten what life was like in the 14 years of Tory failure. Kemi Badenoch’s uphill struggle as Conservative leader is hardly helped due to guilt by association, along with pretty much every other MP left on the opposition benches.
Less of a problem for former Tory councillors defecting to Reform but a bigger headache if a former Johnson or Sunak cabinet minister joins team Farage.
Yes, it would be a coup, thumb the nose at the Tories, help swell the Reform ranks and perhaps encourage others to jump ship.
But – depending on who exactly is defecting – this may not be the best strategy for offering up Reform as a new broom, nor winning over Labour voters in the Welsh valleys or on the road to Wigan pier.
This is not to say Tory (or indeed Labour) defections should not broadly be welcomed. But Reform needs to be cautious about who exactly is being welcomed.
Sure, Reform needs experience but it does not need to be full of politicians seen as complicit in Britain’s managed decline.
Farage’s media enemies are already readying themselves to paint Reform as a reconstituted Conservative Party.
This is why any defectors from today’s Tory benches must be genuine and not opportunists, assets and not Trojan horses.
Yes, Reform may one day need to team up with the Tories in coalition. But stuffing Reform’s benches with old hands from the Cameron, Johnson and Sunak eras could prove to be political kryptonite at this sensitive moment.