Priti Patel ‘feared the most’ by Farage for Tory leadership: ‘She can take the charge to Reform!’

Nigel Farage fears “Priti Patel the most” out of all possible replacements for Rishi Sunak as Tory leader, the party’s former Chairman has claimed.

The Reform UK leader has predicted that “several” Conservative MPs could defect to the party following their agonising defeat in the General Election.

Speaking to the Express, Farage also claimed that there is a “place for like-minded people” like Suella Braverman, amid reports that she’s set to jump the Tory ship to Reform UK in November when the party’s new leader is announced.

Discussing the threat of Reform UK to the Conservatives on GB News, Jonathan Gullis said there “aren’t many obvious contenders” that would defect to Farage’s side.

Gullis explained: “Reform has had their electoral success with their five members of Parliament, but I look at the current crop of Conservative parliamentarians, and I don’t think there are many obvious contenders who would wish to join Reform.

“There’s a lot of anger amongst former Tory colleagues, which I know from conversations I’ve had with them, that people are very angry with Reform.”

GB News host and former Tory MP Miriam Cates then argued that although many Conservative candidates lost out to Reform UK representatives, the voter anger was “so strong” against the Tories that they “voted Reform anyway”.

Cates told Gullis: “Didn’t you find Jonathan on the doorstep like me and like a number of our colleagues, that although individual constituents supported us, the anti-Conservative feeling was so strong that people voted Reform anyway.”

Gullis responded: “The Conservative Party failed to deliver and that’s why the anger was there. And rightly, therefore, we had to take the brunt of the punishment.

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“But there were MPs like Miriam, like myself, who I felt the sensible, pragmatic approach could have meant that we could have been strong voices still within Parliament had reform not stood candidates against us.”

Turning the discussion to the future of the Conservative Party, Cates pressed Gullis on who he believes can “best take on the threat” of Reform UK and Nigel Farage.

Gullis predicted: “I think Priti can take the charge to Reform without having to pander to Reform, without having to become Reform Lite, because she has stood up for her values and her principles when it has come to Brexit, immigration when it comes to things like the Windsor Framework and the sovereignty of our United Kingdom.

“She’s demonstrated that through her voting record in Parliament, the fact she introduced and tried to get the Rwanda flights off the ground, obviously before being removed as Home Secretary – I think therefore she is the one that Nigel fears most.”

Despite admitting that Patel and Farage “do get on”, Gullis concluded that the former Home Secretary can “win the Conservative voters back” that were lost at the election.

Gullis concluded: “Priti Patel does appeal to a lot of those people who voted for Reform, in large parts out of protest, and I think therefore Priti can win those people back.

“But they like a day out at the races together and like a little tipple together as well.”