Discussions are starting in Westminster’s bars and restaurants over the possible shape of a potential Tory-Reform pact which both Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage deny wanting. Bottom line emerging for Conservative MPs is they receive free runs in all 121 seats saved in last July’s bloodbath. Reform senior figures in turn insist they must face no Tory opponents in southern constituencies as well as Labour Red Wall targets in England’s north and Midlands, and in Wales. One blue snout screamed a fight to the death between the Tories and Reform would defeat the right and hand victory to Labour. Another harrumphed that courting Farage would only lose more Tory seats to the Lib Dems. Nobody’s privately claiming an agreement is close or certain, yet conversations are heard.
Twice-sacked former home secretary Suella Braverman remains the MP her Tory colleagues tip to be this parliament’s first defector to Reform, but the rumour is another big name might switch before her. The ex-PM and MP Liz Truss, reinventing herself as a Donald Trump fangirl and world-class conspiracy theorist, is rumoured to be considering her future. Reform may not wish to embrace toxic Truss, of course, while many Tories would be thrilled to see her go.
SW1 film fans liken care minister Stephen Kinnock to Zoolander, Ben Stiller’s character in the 2001 eponymous comedy about a dim-witted fashion model. Kinnock’s pout during TV interviews is said to resemble Zoolander’s “Blue Steel” smouldering glare. At least nobody said he has a face for radio. Yet.
Labour peer Shami Chakrabarti and BBC presenter Reeta Chakrabarti fondly greet each other as “sis” after so many folk have wrongly thought they are related. “It’s often assumed that we’re siblings,” Reeta mused, “because of our shared surname, heritage and short hair, but our families simply come from the same part of India.” She is inviting her non-relative to this month’s launch of her debut novel, Finding Belle. “I don’t actually think we’re very similar looking,” she said.
The Greens and Reform are polar opposites but the relationship may not be net zero. The eco Gang of Four believe they could learn PR tips from Farage. Carla Denyer in an Arthur Daley coat and clutching a pint of beer might be a rebrand too far, however.
James Cleverly’s Tory mates whisper the ex-foreign secretary is seriously mulling a tilt at London mayor in 2028 when Labour three-timer Sadiq Khan might call it a day. That is, unless Badenoch bombs and “not very” Cleverly’s team finally deliver victory instead of pulling off another spectacular tactical defeat.
Kevin Maguire is the associate editor (politics) of the Daily Mirror
[See also: Bonfire of the bureaucrats]
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This article appears in the 30 Apr 2025 issue of the New Statesman, The War on Whitehall
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