'I asked Tory members if they want a pact with Farage - their response surprised me'

Tories have given their verdict on the threat posed by Nigel Farage and Reform UK.

The Daily Express asked delegates at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham their views on the insurgent party.

Tory member Emily Hewertson suggested the Conservatives should strike an electoral pact with Reform, which won five seats and 14.3% of the vote at the general election.

She said: "If it was up to me, I'm quite a pragmatist, I'd actually make a deal with Reform in certain seats where we'd stand down in some of the northern ones that we're never going to win and then maybe they could stand down in some of those right-wing seats they're not going to win.

"I think we should actually consider maybe doing an electoral pact with them.

"If not we're going to be stuck in this rut of a Keir Starmer government that's been a disaster."

Former Brexit minister Lord Frost insisted the Tories need to be more conservative to see off the threat posed by Reform.

The Tory peer said: "We can't win elections if we're divided on the right so we need to find a solution to that problem.

"I think we should become a properly conservative party once again that is attractive to the kind of voters who left us for the Reform Party.

"That's not the only thing we need to do but I don't see how we can hope to win if we don't bring back Reform into the home."

But Tory member Kathryn Cracknell branded Clacton MP Mr Farage as "the Pied Piper of Clacton".

She said: "I'm looking for someone with a positive direction, pro-business, pro-economy, and a liberal approach that suits our country, not chasing after as I call him the Pied Piper of Clacton, Mr Farage.

"He's not the way we want to be going, he's probably reached peak, there are an awful lot of us who could never vote for a party like that and if we start merging or going anywhere that way we're done for, we'll never gain government again."

Conservative member Adam Brown, who is backing Robert Jenrick in the leadership race, said Mr Farage was "a bit of a dinosaur".

He said of Mr Jenrick: "He's that fresh thinker, voice of the next generation, that will actually highlight Farage is a bit of a dinosaur and someone who's not particularly in tune with modern Britain."

Ex-Tory MP Michael Fabricant questioned whether Reform will "stay together" when asked about the threat of Mr Farage.

He said: "I think it's going to be an interesting one. First of all will Nigel Farage decide if Labour makes the decision that MPs can't appear on television who's he going to go for, GB News or stay in Parliament?

"And will Reform actually stay together? I don't know, Ukip fell apart. But look at the end of the day we've got to come up with policies that are actually appealing to people that voted Reform partly just to get rid of the Tories."

It comes as Mr Farage today insisted he would not strike an electoral pact with the new Tory leader.

Speaking to ITV's Good Morning Britain, the Reform leader said of the four Conservative candidates: "They all think with a new leader 'it'll all be fine, all the voters will come back to us', and what they don't understand is the Conservative brand is completely damaged, they have no chance of winning the next election."

He added: "There would be no deal with them, I wouldn't trust them anyway, they have a pattern of behaviour pretending to be one thing and then when they're in government being quite the opposite.

"And, frankly, what I'm trying to do with Reform is replace them."