Richard Tice and Jacob Rees-Mogg entered into a heated debate on GB News last night after the former Tory MP suggested it is time for the Conservatives and Reform to “join forces”.
He advised the next Conservative leader to “start having the occasional dinner with Nigel Farage” to build trust and potentially collaborate in future elections.
Speaking on GB News, Rees-Mogg said: “Ultimately, people like you and me share so many values, so many views about how we should be governed in common.
“There are, I accept, some people in the Tory party that are to the left of me. But if we’re to achieve what you and I want, the type of economy we want and the type of society that we want, we need to unite and bring together the Tory family and the Reform family.”
Jacob Rees-Mogg urged the two parties to “join forces”
GB News
Richard Tice fired back: “I think that what Reform are doing, is we are essentially invoking a coup on the philosophy of conservatism, because too much of the Conservative Party just abandoned that in some new philosophy called ‘consocialism’.
“You couldn’t really tell the difference between the Tory Party and the Labour Party.
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“Competition is a good thing. It makes everybody perform better. Reform has got the momentum at the moment. I think hopefully you would accept that the Tory brand is somewhat toxic.”
He added: “We can’t do a deal with a party as broad a church as the Conservatives. I mean, some of you are poles apart from each other.”
He suggested that Rees-Mogg joins Reform and “help us to Reform the country”.
Rees-Mogg responded: “Most of the members of the Tory party share the views you and I have, but they’re not going to vote for another party.
Lord Frost also told the Conservatives party could “easily disappear” as voters shift towards Reform UK
GB News
“There is a tribal element of this and for Reform to win, it needs to win over that bit of the tribe, which will only vote for something that has Tory on the ballot paper. So the real effort is how to bring us together.”
Tice hit back: “Oh dear Jacob, we’re much more ambitious. We want 326 Reform MPs.”
To which Rees-Mogg said: “But you won’t get them. That is the problem.”
Richard Tice said “we are more ambitious”
GB News
This comes as Lord David Frost, a Conservative peer and former Cabinet minister, cautioned that the party could “easily disappear” as voters shift towards Reform UK.
The Conservative peer made his point at a fringe event during the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham.
The former Brexit negotiator stressed the urgency of winning back Reform supporters, stating: “We can’t possibly win the next election if the Right is divided, that’s just a given.”