The Conservatives and Reform UK have kept open the door to limited co-operation at town hall level after the local elections in England next month, according to officials in both parties.
While both right-wing parties have vetoed a pre-poll pact or post-election formal coalition, neither is ruling out a “confidence and supply” agreement that would allow one to prop up the other to take power in some scenarios in a local authority.
The prospect of such co-operation — which could be an option in local authorities where no party achieves overall control on May 1 but Tory and Reform councillors form a majority — will bolster the hopes of outriders in both parties who want to more formally “unite the right” before the next general election.
“It’s a work in progress,” said one senior Conservative official. “Confidence and supply agreements are something we do, so they’re easier. Anything more than that is more difficult.”
The official said they anticipated fresh guidance would be given to Conservative town hall chiefs about various election result scenarios, though the party headquarters said no such document has been drawn up so far.
Confidence and supply agreements allow for a minority administration to be propped up by the support of another party on confidence motions and budget votes, while all other matters are open to negotiation. It is a less formal agreement than a coalition administration.
Elections will be held in more than 20 councils in England next month. Reform is hoping to make significant gains, while many Conservatives are bracing for big losses as they go into the polls defending a historically high level of council seats, thanks to their commanding popularity the last time these posts came up for election in 2021.
Kevin Hollinrake, Tory shadow local government secretary, said his party was working to win every vote possible in the local elections. But he added: “Where councils become ‘no overall control’, our message has always been to remain true to Conservative policies and principles, to implement Conservative manifesto policies as far as possible.”
Reform said it was “not considering coalitions” but also did not rule out forging confidence and supply agreements with the Conservatives next month. The party said its main focus was winning as many seats and councils as possible, and accused the Tories of concentrating on stemming losses.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch and Reform leader Nigel Farage have both categorically knocked down any prospect of a formal alliance between their respective parties.
However, a movement to shift thinking on the subject is gaining some momentum. Christopher Harborne, a Thailand-based crypto investor who has donated to Farage and former Tory prime minister Boris Johnson, is one of the linchpins of the “unite the right” discussions, according to several people familiar with the talks.
Harborne did not respond to a request for comment
Other senior figures have spoken about the idea more openly. Shadow Tory minister Greg Smith said last month: “If we want to get rid of socialism from this country, there may well be a point where the right-of-centre parties have to play nicely.”
He said it was “far too early” to comment further on the outline of any co-operation between his party and Reform, but added that there “has to be some sort of deal negotiated out” if it looked likely that Labour or a centre-left coalition would remain in power at Westminster.
Mohamed Amersi, who donated to the Tories heavily under Johnson’s leadership but had a public falling out with the party’s then-chair, has recently started backing Reform UK. He said he believed the two parties were “ideal partners” and that they would form a government at the next election.
“Farage hasn’t ruled it out,” Amersi said. “I’m not sure he wants to be the king but he wants to be the kingmaker.”
One recent Reform donor also said he believed Reform and the Tories would have no choice but to form an alliance ahead of the election, which must take place by summer 2029. “If the right is divided, it can’t win,” he said.
Farage has dismissed any such notion publicly. “There is no pact, there is no deal, we’re not the Conservative party,” he told reporters at a lunch in parliament last month. “We’re not Tory-lite. We pretty much despise them for their level of betrayal.”
Badenoch said she “laughed” at accounts of a plot to “unite the right”, arguing Reform was unable to unite itself, having suspended one of its five MPs this year.
Opinion polls have in part fuelled discussions about potential co-operation between the Conservatives and Reform, if such a move could oust Labour from Number 10.
Labour is polling at 25 per cent on average at present, followed by Reform on 24 per cent, the Tories on 22 per cent, the Liberal Democrats on 13 per cent and the Green party on 10 per cent.
The conversations around a Tory-Reform deal are “very donor-led”, according to one Conservative official, who added that donors tended to be “much less sentimental about the history of parties” than other figures within them.
Two gatherings of outriders took place in central London in late March to discuss ideas, according to one person present.
Some degree of ideological overlap between the two parties is also evidenced by the move of a series of Tory staffers to Reform in recent months.
Nonetheless, many others within both parties remain highly opposed to the idea of any merger, or even an informal pre- or post-election pact. Some believe even the suggestion will help Labour “squeeze” its own left flank, persuading uncertain voters open to the Lib Dems or Greens to back Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, in order to prevent a rightwing coalition taking power.
At the weekend Labour launched an advert merging Badenoch and Farage’s faces, with the caption “Reform and the Tories are closer than you think. No plans, no solutions, just more chaos,” suggesting the ruling party believes that presenting the two as aligned is a successful attack line.
