Nigel Farage rejects Jacob Rees-Mogg’s offer to join the Tories
NIGEL FARAGE has ruled out joining the Conservatives after a senior Brexiteer suggested the former Ukip leader should become a party member. Jacob Rees-Mogg said it would be "very good news" if moderates who had been involved with the Eurosceptic party now joined the Tories.
Nigel Farage REJECTS Rees-Mogg’s invite to join Conservatives
But a horrified Mr Farage, who quit Ukip in December, said he would never become a member of a party led by Theresa May and accused the Conservatives of failing to keep their promises.
Asked if he would consider becoming a Tory, he said: "Good God, no."
"I don't support much of what they stand for. They make a series of promises that they never deliver on.
And anyway, the current leadership wouldn't have me and, frankly, I couldn't even contemplate joining a party that led was by Mrs May.
"It's very sweet of Jacob but at the moment it does not look like a very realistic possibility."
Mr Farage said this weekend that he was ready to return to frontline politics and was backing a new political force called Brexit Party.
Jacob Rees-Mogg left SPEECHLESS after Nigel Farage question
He said he will "re-enter the fray" if a snap general election is called or Britain's EU exit is delayed and leads to voters being given a say in the next European Parliament poll.
Mr Farage severed his ties with Ukip over leader Gerard Batten's "obsession" with Islam and links to Tommy Robinson.
He was one of a number of senior figures in the party to quit over its dramatic shift in direction including ex-economic spokesman Patrick O'Flynn, formerly of this parish.
Mr Rees-Mogg, the chairman of the European Research Group of Leave supporting Conservatives, told LBC radio: "If the Conservative Party could reunite with the reasonable elements of Ukip that would be good news and Nigel would be part of that."
He added: "It may be a little bit early, though personally I hold Nigel in the highest regard and think he was one of the people who was instrumental in delivering Brexit."