Reform Says A Labour Government Is Worth It For ‘Obliterating Tories’

The deputy leader of the right wing party Reform UK has said they would be comfortable with Labour forming the next government if it meant “booting out the Tory party” at the next general election, due this year.

Ben Habib, who said he wanted to “obliterate” the Conservatives when he joined the right-wing party last year, told PoliticsHome podcast The Rundown he was happy with the idea that standing candidates in this year’s election, and the likelihood of splitting the right wing vote with the Tories, could enhance Keir Starmer's chance of becoming the next Prime Minister.

Polling published this week has seen Reform UK reach a new high of 12 per cent in national voting intention, with analysis suggesting they could take enough votes away from the Tories to guarantee Labour a majority victory.

But Habib rejected the suggestion they should stand down candidates in some seats as their predecessor The Brexit Party did ahead of the 2019 election in order to help the Conservatives with the aim of ensuring a right wing party enters Downing Street. Instead Reform is trying to peel Conservatives away with a new 'defections unit'.

“This is a really fundamental point for British politics, you cannot elect people just because you think the person you're voting for is bad, but the other lot are even worse,” Habib explained.

“We've got to break out of that spiral of inadequate performance, we've got to punish failure.”

Habib, Reform’s co-deputy leader alongside David Bull, and also its candidate in the upcoming by-election in Wellingborough, said the current government “has been an utter disaster, they must therefore be booted out”.

"When you fail, you cannot be rewarded with incumbency," he continued. 

“If we get a Labour government and