The image of Nigel Farage has loomed over this party conference season, as the established parties scramble to come up with a response to the rapid rise of Reform UK.Labour and the Liberal Democrats launched all-out attacks on Farage, portraying him as a threat to the very fabric of British society.But here at the Conservative Party conference, the attacks have, in general, been more muted. Reform is not just an electoral menace to the Conservatives, but an existential one.The party is leaking members, elected officials, and influence to Reform. In the past few hours, Farage’s party has unveiled a further 20 Tory defectors on local councils.The Tory leadership’s strategy for dealing with this is to portray Farage as someone who does not have serious answers to the country’s problems, who will say anything to get votes – including posing as a left-winger when it suits him.At an event on Sunday evening, Shadow Housing Secretary James Cleverly branded Farage a “socialist” – the worst insult in the Tory lexicon.The audience dutifully booed at the mention of the Reform UK leader’s name but speaking to Tory members afterwards, it was clear many feel uncomfortable about these kind of attacks.They view Farage as one of their own – a Tory at heart, who should be welcomed back into the Tory fold, rather than vilified. Reform supporters are their friends and, in an increasing number of cases, former colleagues. They want to “unite the right” …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnThe image of Nigel Farage has loomed over this party conference season, as the established parties scramble to come up with a response to the rapid rise of Reform UK.Labour and the Liberal Democrats launched all-out attacks on Farage, portraying him as a threat to the very fabric of British society.But here at the Conservative Party conference, the attacks have, in general, been more muted. Reform is not just an electoral menace to the Conservatives, but an existential one.The party is leaking members, elected officials, and influence to Reform. In the past few hours, Farage’s party has unveiled a further 20 Tory defectors on local councils.The Tory leadership’s strategy for dealing with this is to portray Farage as someone who does not have serious answers to the country’s problems, who will say anything to get votes – including posing as a left-winger when it suits him.At an event on Sunday evening, Shadow Housing Secretary James Cleverly branded Farage a “socialist” – the worst insult in the Tory lexicon.The audience dutifully booed at the mention of the Reform UK leader’s name but speaking to Tory members afterwards, it was clear many feel uncomfortable about these kind of attacks.They view Farage as one of their own – a Tory at heart, who should be welcomed back into the Tory fold, rather than vilified. Reform supporters are their friends and, in an increasing number of cases, former colleagues. They want to “unite the right” …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
