Nigel Farage has outlined his plan to take over the Conservative Party following the British election on July 4. He hopes to do so not by joining the currently governing party, which is expected to lose to the left-wing Labour Party by a landslide, but by out-competing it and forcing a merger.
Appearing on Good Morning Britain, Farage was told his route to the office of Prime Minister was “to become a Conservative MP and leader of the Conservative Party,” but Farage insisted he has “no interest in this Conservative Party.”
“Frankly, I think the people that control the Conservative central office, that run the party apparatus, they’re not conservatives, they’re social democrats,” he argued.
Populist thinkers, including War Room host Stephen K. Bannon, have urged Farage to take over the Conservative Party from within, as MAGA has taken over the GOP in the U.S.
While Farage has “joked” about being Conservative leader by 2026 before, he now argues he can take over the establishment party “from without.”
‘Do you rule out being the leader of the Conservative Party in the next 5 years?’@Nigel_Farage rules out the possibility of leading the Conservative Party in the future. He tells @susannareid100 and @edballs that ‘the better thing to do, is to take it over.’ pic.twitter.com/ywzalVigtS
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) June 4, 2024
‘REVERSE TAKEOVER.’
“If Reform succeed in the way that I think they can, then a chunk of the Conservative Party will join us — it’s the other way around,” he explained. He cited the example of Stephen Harper’s Reform Party in Canada, a populist-leaning outfit that took away so much of the establishment Progressive Conservative Party’s support that it became unviable as a party of government. A ‘Unite the Right’ movement ultimately brought the parties together as the Conservative Party of Canada under Harper’s leadership.
“What happened in Canada is Reform did a reverse takeover of the [Progressive] Conservative Party, rebranded it, and Stephen Harper — who was elected as a Reform MP — became the Canadian prime minister for ten years,” Farage recalled.
“I don’t want to join the Conservative Party; I think the better thing to do would be to take it over.”
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Nigel Farage has outlined his plan to take over the Conservative Party following the British election on July 4. He hopes to do so not by joining the currently governing party, which is expected to lose to the left-wing Labour Party by a landslide, but by out-competing it and forcing a merger.
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