Exclusive:Jacob Rees-Mogg rules out Reform UK defection and calls for election pact with Tories
Tory grandee Jacob Rees-Mogg has ruled out defecting to Reform UK and said he is working on an election pact to “unite the right”.
There were reports that the Conservatives had the former business secretary on “defection watch” due to his close relationship with Nigel Farage.
Mr Rees-Mogg lost his Somerset seat last July after 14 years in Parliament, and there was speculation that he may try and return as a Reform candidate at a by-election.
However, ahead of a Popular Conservatism event in Scarborough, Mr Rees-Mogg told The Yorkshire Post he is “not intending to defect”.
“Reform is very good at headline policies, but how does it do it in detail and how does it carry it out? Reform isn’t there yet,” he explained.
“What I keep on talking about is how you need to unite the right.
“In the first past the post system, if you divide your wing of politics you lose and so I am remaining Conservative and working to try and bring people together.”
The Brexiteer said he hoped to build a pre-election pact with Reform UK, who are leading in the polls.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch and Mr Farage have both ruled out doing any kind of deal.
“At the moment, everybody says they don’t want to but I think nobody admits they want to unite until you get closer to an election and face the cold reality of if you are divided you let a Labour minority in of some kind.
“And there is such a wide overlap between the Tories and Reform policy, particularly since Kemi became leader.”
Mr Rees-Mogg also said he was surprised by the missteps of Labour Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
Sir Keir is under mounting pressure from Labour backbenchers over a string of scandals, including the resignation of his deputy Angela Rayner and emails showing US ambassador Peter Mandelson showering paedophile Jeffrey Epstein with love despite his conviction for soliciting a minor.
One Labour insider told this paper that Sir Keir “has never been more vulnerable”.
Mr Rees-Mogg said: “I thought he would be perfectly competent and rather boring and he’s turned out to be completely hopeless. I’m really surprised by this.
“I wouldn’t claim at all to know him well, but I always found him very polite and perfectly sensible.
“I thought we would have dull competence after a period where the Tories hadn’t appeared to be very competent.
“It’s certainly not been dull but that’s not the right way of not being dull and it hasn’t been competent.”
Mr Rees-Mogg described Sir Keir’s disastrous last week as “extraordinary”.
He said this “is what happens to governments when they’ve been in office for 14 years, when the scandals come out and the senior figures have to resign. It doesn’t happen after a year”.
Mr Rees-Mogg appeared at the Popular Conservatism event to “have a discussion about Conservative views and Conservative principles”.
He said it was held in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, “to ensure that discussion is being held around the country, as a lot of British politics is very metropolitan centred and doesn’t involve people elsewhere”.