James Cleverly rules out Reform merger while sharing 'simple truth' about Tories

James Cleverly has insisted the Conservative Party “doesn’t do mergers” when asked about the threat of Reform.

The Tory leadership contender was asked about a YouGov survey that showed roughly half of Tory members were in support of merging with Nigel Farage’s party.

The shadow home secretary said: “The Conservative Party doesn’t do mergers.

“The simple truth is that we have got a series of principles.

“We believe in civil liberty, we believe in free enterprise, we believe in the efficient but modest size of the state, and lower taxes.”

He said the Conservative Party needs to “expand our base of support”.

Suella Braverman, who is expected to run for the Tory leadership, has said her party needs to “grapple with this phenomenon of Reform”.

She also warned that the Tories must take a harder line on immigration to win back voters who switched to Reform.

The former home secretary said: “This is a really big – dare I say – existential question and moment for the Conservatives because we’ve got a new kid on the block; we’ve got Reform.

"And Reform really did eat into our core vote at this election.

Dame Priti Patel, Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick and Tom Tugendhat are among the other senior Tories who could run to replace Rishi Sunak.

Mr Cleverly suggested that uniting the Conservative Party should be the first job of the next Tory leader and policy discussions should come after that.

The former cabinet minister, who is the only candidate so far to have officially declared their candidacy for the top job, said: “Doing the heavy lifting on policy if we don’t then speak with one voice as a united, disciplined party is putting the cart before the horse.

“We tried that at the 2024 election and people didn’t listen to what we were saying because we had lost their confidence.”