Reform Party member Ben Habib says his group is aiming to “obliterate” the Conservative Party at the next general election.
It follows the party announcing they will be pitting candidates against Tories in every seat.
Leader Richard Tice told a press conference that there is a “huge appetite” for Reform UK and that it is reflected in the polls, claiming Labour and the Tories have become “two sides of the same socialist coin”.
Speaking to GB News, Ben Habib said his party’s insurgence spells bad news for the incumbent Government.
Ben Habib says the Tories are facing an electoral wipeout
GB News
He told Andrew Pierce and Bev Turner: “My aim, and I am absolute and unequivocal about it, and I know Richard [Tice] and Nigel [Farage] are onboard with this, is to obliterate the Tory Party.
“There will be no surrender, there will be no deals, there will be no standing down in seats.
“We are going to take the fight to the Conservative Party. They are not conservative. They are not pro-Brexit, and they are certainly not unionists.
Asked about the threat of allowing Keir Starmer a free run to power as a result, Habib said the Tories can’t be allowed to continue as a result of their “failure”.
Rishi Sunak is facing a Brexit rebellionPAHe said: “You can’t reward failure with incumbency, down that road lies massive moral hazard.
“You inculcate bad behaviour, and we’ve had too much of ‘I know we’re awful, but the other lot are even worse’.
“We’re going to boot them out. They’ve got a year and a half to get their act together.
“Liz Truss very nearly delivered some remotely conservative policies, but this lot aren’t conservative.
“No conservative should bemoan the fact that they are going to get thumped at the next election.”
Richard Tice said his party will put forward around 500 candidates at the local elections in May, before having 630 candidates at the next general election.
He called on disenfranchised Tory MPs to defect and assist in his bid to secure seats in Parliament with Reform UK.
Speaking at a press conference in Westminster, he said: “There’s no question there are some very disaffected Tory MPs.
“But what we’re seeing at the moment is a sort of ‘support Sunak’ operation that is disgraceful, because they are trying to prop up their failing party as opposed to do what is right for the country.”
Reform UK honorary president Nigel Farage spoke at the same event saying the party will challenge the Tories in a bid to force through Brexit, which he says is “not complete”.
“Part of the UK has been hived off and is still being controlled by the European Commission,” he said.
“Vast swathes of industry that were looking forward to benefits, the fishing industry being one, have seen virtually nothing in their favour. Regulations have not been axed.
“And on the really big one, namely control of our borders, to only do we have what’s been happening in the English Channel but legal net migration last year was running at half a million.
“So three and a half years on, Brexit has not been completed.”
