Robert Jenrick has vowed to “unite the right” ahead of the next general election, signalling an electoral pact between the Conservatives and Reform UK.
The senior Tory, seen as a leadership contender waiting to replace Kemi Badenoch, said “one way or another” he is determined to form a coalition between the parties.
Speaking to a group of students in March, he said his worry is that Reform UK “becomes a permanent or semi-permanent fixture on the British political scene”.
“If that is the case, and I am trying to do everything I can to stop that being the case, then life becomes a lot harder for us, because the right is not united,” Mr Jenrick added.
In a secret recording of his remarks, revealed by Sky News, he said: “You head towards a general election where the nightmare scenario is that Keir Starmer sails in through the middle as a result of the two parties not being united.
“I don’t know about you, I am not prepared for that to happen. I want the right to be united, and one way or another I am determined to do that.”
The remarks were revealed just over a week before voters go to the polls for what looks set to be a disastrous set of local elections for the Conservatives. With Nigel Farage’s Reform having established a consistent lead over Labour and the Tories in the polls, Ms Badenoch’s party is set to suffer devastating losses in next Thursday’s contests.
It is Ms Badenoch’s first electoral test since succeeding Rishi Sunak, and will only fuel speculation she does not have a long future as Tory leader.
Both Ms Badenoch and Mr Farage have previously ruled out electoral pacts, with the Tory leader highlighting her Reform rival’s claim he wants to “destroy the Conservative Party”.
Unlike Reform, however, the Conservatives have said they could work with the former Brexit Party at a local level to take control of councils after the May 1 elections.
Dismissing the idea, Mr Farage said he has “no intention in forming coalitions with the Tories at any level”. The public refusal of both party leaders to entertain the idea is predictable, with neither wanting to appear the weaker of the two.
But Mr Jenrick’s thinking will dominate behind the scenes in the run up to the next general election, with Reform and the Tories currently attracting almost half of voters but risking preventing each other from being able to win enough seats to prevent Labour being re-elected.
Reform UK on Wednesday said: “The Tories failed the country for 14 years in office. We will never do a deal with them.”
Britain’s top pollster Professor Sir John Curtice pointed to Mr Farage’s vow before July’s general election that he would only re-enter frontline politics if he could lead a party to replace the Conservatives as the main centre-right option in the UK.
He told The Independent: “So I am sure there may be people like Robert Jenrick who would like to be able to have some kind of partnership or arrangement with Reform in which the Tories are the senior partner.
“The point is, the next year or two is about an internecine struggle on the right for supremacy.”
Ms Badenoch’s official spokesman said she “has made perfectly clear there will be absolutely no electoral pact with Reform”.
And he denied that Mr Jenrick had called for one, arguing his words should be read as an argument for defeating Mr Farage’s party and uniting voters on the right instead.
But responding to the recording, Labour called on Ms Badenoch to “come clean” as to whether she backs her shadow justice secretary’s plans to form a coalition on the right of British politics.
Labour chairman Ellie Reeves said: “If she disagrees with Robert Jenrick, how can her leadership have any credibility whilst he remains in her Shadow Cabinet?
“We know Kemi Badenoch has opened the door to deals with Reform at a local level, which Labour has categorically ruled out and now Robert Jenrick has let the cat out the bag.
“Between the Tories who decimated the NHS and Reform who want to make people pay for routine treatments, it’s a recipe for chaos and would be a disaster for Britain.”
The Liberal Democrats called for Mr Jenrick to be sacked, adding that “anything less would show she’s either too weak or that she agrees”.
Deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: “The cat is out of the bag, senior Conservatives are plotting a grubby election deal with Nigel Farage.”
