Reform verdict on most Tory defectors - 'Why would we want to be associated with that?'

Reform UK has set up a "defection team" as so many Tories are looking to jump ship - but the party doesn't want most of them, according to 's former spin doctor.

Gawain Towler, who worked for the right-winger for two decades, said: “The question is, do we want them? I don’t necessarily think we do."

Support for the Tories continues to nosedive, with the latest YouGov poll coming in at just 18% - third behind and Reform.

Mr Towler said: “If that momentum continues and you see Tory polling under 20% for six months, it’s deeply dispiriting for them. It doesn't matter how, you will see a continual leeching.”

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After former Tory MP Lee Anderson defected to Reform in March last year and retained his Ashfield seat at the , Mr Towler believes there are many more who want to join.

Speaking on The Division Bell podcast, he said: “On election night last year in July, how many Tory MPs were sitting there saying, looking at the results in Ashfield, when Lee Anderson stormed in thinking ‘why on Earth, didn't I do it myself?’”

As Head of Press for , Party and Reform between 2004-2024, Mr Towler had a front row seat to the rise of Nigel Farage and doesn’t think his appeal will dry up any time soon.

The question for Reform, he claims, isn’t if they’re going to see more Tory MPs try to defect - it's how many.

He said: “Of course we're going to get MPs. It happens every time, but when you see a party that is being hammered so very badly, how many MPs? One of the polling projections I saw, I think they get 17 [MPs]!”

Despite this, Mr Towler said he would be “surprised if there’s more than five [MPs] that we are happy with.

"Look at their track record, look at what they did in office. Why would we want to be associated with that?”

He claimed he had heard top Tories saying: “He [Farage] smokes and he drinks, so he’s probably going to die before [the election]."

He retorted: “If that’s the best they’ve got - ‘ooh, our best chance of winning this election is if Farage has a hernia or something’ - but if that’s your strategy, waiting for him to pop his clogs, then it seems a bit threadbare.”

To hear more from inside Westminster, listen to this week’s episode of The Division Bell on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.