Nigel Farage BANNED from Tory Party as all six leadership candidates vow to refuse entry
Nigel Farage will not be allowed to join the Conservatives no matter who wins
PA
Nigel Farage will be banned from the Conservative party no matter who replaces Rishi Sunak as leader, it has emerged.
Mel Stride today confirmed that he would not allow Nigel Farage to sit on the Conservative benches in the Commons.
This means that all of the six candidates to replace Rishi Sunak as leader have turned their faces against working closely with Farage, the leader of the Reform UK party.
The position is in contrast to Sunak who twice told GB News last year - at the party's conference in October and on a trip to a climate change summit in December - that Farage could join the party, saying it was a "broad church".
Nigel Farage will not be allowed to join the Conservatives no matter who winsPAAsked if he would let Farage could be a Tory member, Stride told today's Chopper's Political Podcast: "No, I made that very clear.
"Look Nigel Farage wants to destroy the Conservative Party.
"This is one of the things that he that he says reasonably frequently. There's no question of that."
Yesterday Tom Tugendhat, a former Security minister running for the leadership, said he would not allow Farage to join the party.
All six Tory leadership candidates have ruled out letting Nigel Farage join the party
GB NEW
Robert Jenrick and Dame Priti Patel have already both said that Farage could not join. Patel said last weekend: "His party stood at the last election and he categorically made it clear that his intention was to destroy the Conservative party... the answer is no."
The final two candidates - Kemi Badneoch and James Cleverly - both made clear in June, before the election, that Farage had no place in the Conservative party.
Farage himself shrugged off the candidates' comments, telling GB News: "It is of no interest to me whatsoever."