Kemi Badenoch's refusal to 'unite the Right' has been dealt a blow as a new poll suggests a Reform-Tory alliance is the only way to defeat Labour.
The shock projection comes after the Leader of the Opposition launched a scathing attack on Nigel Farage in an interview on Tuesday.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Badenoch poured cold water on growing calls to “unite the Right”, claiming that Farage is not a serious enough politician to enter Downing Street.
"We’ve got to move away from politics as showbusiness," she said.
Kemi Badenoch's 'unite the right' snub backfires as Tory-Reform pact poised to flip 351 seats in shock Labour defeatGetty Images/Electoral Calculus
Badenoch dismissed a right-wing merger as "wishful thinking" and said that Reform's recent infighting is further proof that it would be unworkable.
Does she have a point?
A new poll flies in the face of her assertions, finding that such an alliance is the only way to defeat Labour at the next General Election.
The new poll from More in Common puts Reform and Labour neck-and-neck at 25 per cent, with the Tories trailing behind in third place at 24 per cent.
We ran these percentages through the Electoral Calculus seat calculator to see what this would mean for a General Election.
Strength in numbers
Based on the new polling, the model has the Conservatives falling far short of a majority in the Commons with 186 seats - four more than Labour but 140 short of an absolute majority.
Reform, on the other hand, would see its seat share surge to 165 seats.
This suggests that a Reform-Tory collaboration would command a majority of 351 seats if an election was held tomorrow.
The game-changing projection comes after insiders claimed Badenoch could be ousted by a Conservative-Reform "Unite the Right" deposition plot.
LATEST MEMBERSHIP DEVELOPMENTS
The new polling has the Conservatives falling far short of a majority in the Commons, with 186 seats
PAA group of former Tory bigwigs with "significant" backing from donors are planning to launch the campaign in the next few weeks.
The Sunday Times reported that the "Unite the Right" campaign will be "explicitly agnostic", adding plotters will look to remove Badenoch "sharpish" as "more and more MPs realise she's doomed".
Insiders even mooted mimicking the relationship between the CSU and CDU in Germany, with the Tories concentrating efforts on the shires and Reform aggressively targeting the Red Wall.
However, Reform UK dismissed speculation about supporting any form of electoral alliance.
“There is no deal," a Reform UK spokesman said. "The only reason the Tories are talking about it is because their poll ratings are about to fall off a cliff.”
