Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride has insisted the Conservatives will not strike an electoral deal with Reform UK due to their “completely ruinous” economic agenda.
In an interview with a new online magazine led by the centre-right think tank Bright Blue, Stride said his party should avoid “indulging in populist politics” and focus on calling out “fantasy demands” by Reform.
Stride’s comments mark a stark division between the Tories and Reform as the two parties wrangle over welfare reform, with Farage’s party proposing more modest cuts than the Conservatives.
Stride told Centre Write: “Our role is to shine the light of truth on Reform and expose the fantasy economics that they peddle, the ideas that don’t add up.
“You can then work your way into a discussion about why it’s important that parties don’t peddle that kind of policy agenda and start to deconstruct in a thoughtful way some of the things that they say.
“Reform might say, we’re going to take everybody earning up to £20,000 out of income tax altogether. Thoughtfully, we should observe that that would cost about up to £80bn.
“Reform has a duty to explain how it’s going to fund that. Otherwise, it’s left peddling fantasy demands that would be extremely dangerous and very damaging to our economy, and that would have real consequences.”
‘No coaltion’ with Reform
In response to a question on whether the Tories should strike a deal with Reform, Stride struck a more defiant tone.
He said the Conservatives would not look to form a deal despite suggestions it could look to replicate an arrangement in 2019 that the Tories formed with the Brexit Party.
“I don’t want to have any coalition or arrangement with Reform,” Stride said.
“Why would I want to have a coalition, or something about a merger, or whatever it may be, with a party whose economic prescription for our country will be completely ruinous?”
Reform is currently polling far higher than the Tories.
Stride upbeat on elections
Farage and leading party officials have held regular press conferences, attracting headlines for new policies on legal immigration, welfare and changes to Whitehall.
Stride said several parties had returned despite predictions of heavy defeats, including his opponents in Labour who suffered a big electoral setback in 2019 only to win last year’s vote.
He also pointed to the collapse of Canadian conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s lead in the polls ahead of the country’s recent election as an example of how voters’ attitudes can rapidly change.
“We live in very volatile times. The poll that will matter will be the one that will be held in about four years’ time.”