Former Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe is too right wing to join the Conservative party, ex-Cabinet minister Sir David Davis has said, who said the rise of Reform UK was a symptom of his party’s failure over the past years.
Party grandee Davis told today’s Chopper’s Political Podcast said that Reform had grown in popularity because “we were not proper Tories for too long”, and added that new Labour MPs were telling him they feared only being in office for a single Parliamentary term.
Davis – a Tory MP since 1987 and a former Cabinet minister – said that it was “probably right” for Lowe – who lost the whip as a Reform UK MP after a spectacular falling out with its leader Nigel Farage – to be an independent MP.
Asked by host Christopher Hope if he felt that Lowe would be welcome in the Tory party, he replied: “No, I don’t. I think, if anything, Rupert is a bit to the right of the rest of them, of Nigel Farage.
Former Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe is too right wing to join the Conservative party, ex-Cabinet minister Sir David Davis has said, who said the rise of Reform UK was a symptom of his party’s failure over the past years
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“He added that he could not see Lowe becoming a Tory member saying: “If somebody tries to burn down the golf club, you don’t offer them membership.”
Davis said: “So he’s going to be an independent, and that’s probably the right thing for him, to be honest. He has his own views. He’s a great fan of Elon Musk and vice versa.”
Labour MPs were getting nervous about holding on to their seats at the next general election to be held in 2028 or 2029, he said.
“There are Labour MPs saying to me already, I’m only going to be here for one term,” he said. “It’s the first time I’ve heard that for a long, long time.”
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Reform’s appeal was as a protest party which had never had to implement a policy in office, he said: “Reform is able to say, ‘we will do this and we will do that in very clear language’. They can do it partly because they’ve never been in office.
“And their weakness is people saying, ‘well, will they actually be able to do this?’ This tends to say, ‘no’.”
Turning to the splits in Reform, which now has just four MPs in the House of Commons after Lowe was forced out last week, Davis added: “If only five of them fall apart, what’s it going to be like if they’re 50 or 200?”
He added: “It’s a very effective protest party. The Tory party almost created them. We weren’t proper Tories for too long, right? And we created a vacuum and Reform stepped into the vacuum.
Party grandee David Davis told today’s Chopper’s Political Podcast said that Reform had grown in popularity because “we were not proper Tories for too long”
GB News
“I’m hoping, and I think she will, that Kemi will fill that vacuum and then there won’t be a place for them, but let’s see.”
Asked if Reform were “a symptom of a sickness at the heart of the Tory party” he said: “Yes, which, is being cured as we sit here.”
Listen to Chopper’s Political Podcast on Apple podcasts or Spotify, or watch it on GB News’ YouTube channel