Nigel Farage has scolded Conservative leadership candidates James Cleverly and Robert Jenrick for their “deluded” attack on him and Reform UK during today’s Tory party conference in Birmingham.
As they both took part in a question and answer session, hosted by GB News Political Editor Christopher Hope, Jenrick revealed plans to make Reform UK “redundant” and to “retire” Farage from politics.
Jenrick told the conference: “My view of Reform is this – I think it’s a symptom, not a cause. It exists in its current state because we failed.
“So I’m not going to disparage Reform. I think in a way that’s denigrating the millions of people who vote for them, who are our people. What I am going to do is set out, with your support, to make them redundant, to retire Nigel Farage.”
The Reform UK leader hit back at Jenrick and Cleverly’s remarks in a scathing rant
GB News
Also launching an attack on Farage, Cleverly claimed that the Reform UK leader “hates” the Tories, and is seeking to “destroy” the party with his own.
Cleverly fumed: “Reform is a pale imitation of us. We don’t need to be a pale imitation of them, we need to be the best version of us.
“Nigel is not a Tory. He never claims to be a Tory, he said he hates the Tories. He wants to destroy our party. He is not one of us.”
Reacting to the scathing remarks, Farage raged: “I have to say, I think they’re deluded. They talk about things like ‘our voters’ as if they have some sort of divine right to govern the centre right.
Tory leadership hopefuls James Cleverly and Robert Jenrick took aim at Nigel during today’s Conservative Party Conference
GB News
“They also seem to be completely obsessed with me and with getting back the Reform vote.”
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Taking aim at the Conservative Party ahead of their leadership election, Farage claimed that the four hopefuls – Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick, Tom Tugendhat and James Cleverly – have “no comprehension” of their party’s current state.
Farage told GB News: “You know, they really, honestly, truly think, they can just pick a new leader – only the sixth since 2016 – get a few new policies and, hey, bingo.
“That it will be all no problem at all, and they’ll win the next election.
“There seems to be no comprehension that their brand is broken. At least that’s my view.”
Nigel Farage claimed that the Conservative brand is ‘broken’
GB News
Farage continued: “You can’t tell people in 2010, 2015, 2017 and 2019, that you’re going to do a vast number of things, and then just not do them.”
Offering her verdict on the remarks, commentator Claire Pearsall said the Conservative “obsession” with Reform UK and Nigel Farage is diverting the problem away from the party itself.
Pearsall said: “The one thing that they’re missing when they keep going on about Reform, or they keep going on about you, is what is it that makes them Conservative?
“Because what I want to hear is how the Conservative Party are going to be Conservative, how they’re going to lead, how they’re going to put policies together, and are they actually going to do stuff that the membership and the country wants?”
