‘Unite the right’ ideas put to town hall test

Good morning. As the global economy was rocked by further turbulence yesterday thanks to Donald Trump’s radical tariffs schedule, Keir Starmer vowed to respond with “active government” in Britain to help the worst-hit sectors, including the domestic car and steel industries. 

But perhaps a more fitting descriptor for his actions would be “reactive government”, because in truth the UK prime minister has little more leeway to strategise from the front foot than any other world leader at present.

Instead, Starmer and his counterparts must — with a high degree of passivity — simply brace and await Trump’s moves, before then attempting to parry them.

The US president’s extraordinary unpredictability means this sequence of American action, followed by other nations’ counteraction, applies to the realm of defence and security as much as it does to trade and economics. 

It’s a bleak situation for Washington’s allies, but a thought: Starmer could be uniquely well equipped for it. 

For while he is often criticised for lacking a “grand vision” for Britain or firm political moorings, an absence of ideology may just afford him more room to manoeuvre in reaction to Trump, unconstrained by a straitjacket of doctrine.

The prime minister talks incessantly about improving the “agility” of the UK government to deliver policy domestically. Downing Street now needs that same prized quality in the international sphere to respond to Trump with as much adroitness as it can muster. 

From loathing to local alliances?

Intrigue about a nascent movement — or plot, depending on your perspective — to “unite the right” refuses to die in Westminster, despite the best efforts of the leadership of the Tory and Reform UK parties to kill it off.

I’ve written about this today with my colleague Anna Gross, as the prospect of some form of limited co-operation between the two parties could lie just around the corner after the local elections on May 1. 

A pre-poll pact or post-election formal coalition has been vetoed by each side, with both stressing that they are, naturally, focusing on winning outright as many councillors and councils as possible.

But each of the rightwing parties has — according to officials in both camps — left the door open to narrower “confidence and supply” agreements in which one could help the other take power at town hall level.

There is precedent for this kind of limited co-operation on the right. Take Southend, where in 2016 the Conservatives fell two councillors short of a majority and were propped up by Ukip, a forerunner party to Reform that was also led at that time by Nigel Farage. You can see the detailed memorandum of understanding they drew up here. 

Then in 2019, the Brexit party (later rebranded as Reform) took over the running of its debut local authority in north-east England, Hartlepool Borough Council, thanks in part to the support of three Tory councillors joining a coalition, arguing it had “put country before party”. 

Of course any repeat of such co-operation next month would only be an option in councils where a) no party wins overall control, b) the Conservatives and Reform between them make up a majority of councillors, and c) they are willing to co-operate in such a fashion that one party props up the other on confidence motions and budget votes. 

It’s a fair few criteria to fulfil, but the prospect is nonetheless likely to capture the imagination of outriders in both parties who want to see them come together in a more formal way before the next general election.

At present, 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.

There are others straddling the party divide who agree that the idea should be explored before the next general election, but without any hint of enthusiasm for the idea. 

Their rationale is underpinned by pragmatism: that co-operation on the centre and populist right is preferable if it can frustrate the centre-left from wielding power in No 10. 

At present in Politico’s poll of polls, no party is storming out in front. But Reform (polling at 24 per cent) and the Conservatives (22 per cent) together make up 46 per cent, far outstripping the combined tally of Labour (24 per cent) and the Lib Dems (13 per cent), who together make up 37 per cent.

One Reform figure, who stated upfront they “hate the Tories”, said that in a situation where a Reform-Conservative agreement could keep a Labour-led administration out of power, “what are you going to do? Not talk to each other?”

All that said, formal or close co-operation appears impossible for now. Farage has dismissed any such notion publicly, declaring last month, “there is no pact, there is no deal, we’re not the Conservative party. We’re not Tory-lite. We pretty much despise them for their level of betrayal”. 

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has meanwhile declared she “laughed” at accounts of a secret campaign to “unite the right”, arguing Reform was unable to unite itself, having suspended one of its five MPs this year.

Within weeks, however, we’ll see whether any limited co-operation ends up being thrashed out between the two parties in any local authorities. 

Now try this

The third season of White Lotus, the luxe tourism satire, has been a grind — and more fool me for persevering, because last night’s 90-minute finale was a disappointment that did not save it. So my verdict is: swerve.

Instead, allow me to shamelessly plug our weekly FT politics podcast Political Fix, and our plans for a new semi-regular Q&A special, via which I’ll be fielding all your most fiendish queries to Stephen and the gang.

If you have a burning question, please send it by the end of the week to politicalfix@ft.com — or better still, drop me a voice note with your name and Q at the same address, and we’ll play it out on the show. 

Top stories today

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• Home Office ‘frustrated’ | Home Office officials have accused the Department for Education of encouraging universities to lobby against reforms to tighten the graduate visa, which allows overseas students to stay in the UK for up to two years after they finish their degree.

• Breaking cloud cover | A court has confirmed for the first time the existence of a legal battle between Apple and the UK government, which has demanded the iPhone-maker provide access to its most secure cloud storage systems.

• Looming job cuts | Hospitals in England could axe more than 100,000 jobs as a result of the huge reorganisation and cost-cutting ordered by Wes Streeting and the NHS’s new chief executive, the Guardian’s Denis Campbell reports.