Nigel Farage: Conservatives facing ‘extinction event’ and he’s aiming to replace them
Nigel Farage believes it’s possible to replace the Conservative Party with his own Reform Party as he predicts an “extinction event” for the government at the next election.
Mr Farage was speaking to Sky News political editor Beth Rigby at the launch of the Popular Conservatism (PopCon) group in Westminster.
Headlined by former prime minister Liz Truss, the group claims it is not looking to replace Rishi Sunak as leader of the Conservatives, but instead spark a debate on ideas.
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Asked which party he wants to be in, Mr Farage said: “Oh Reform, no question about it.”
Speaking in a room full of Conservative MPs and activists, he added: “I think at some point in time a lot of the people here today will draw the same conclusion.
“And… I know it’s only once every hundred years these things happen, but I do think we face the possibility that this could be the end of the road for the Conservative Party.”
He added: “They’ve been around since 1834. They’re now facing a possible extinction event, and they know it.
“I think PopCon makes six families now of backbench Conservative MPs – they are bitterly divided.
“I don’t know what the outcome of all of this is going to be, but we do, for the first time ever, think it’s possible to replace them.”
He later added: “I want the Conservative Party replaced.”
Who are the Reform Party, where did they come from and what are their policies?
Ms Truss spoke to a room of Tory MPs and activists. Pic: Reuters
The Conservatives are continuing to languish in the polls, with an average deficit to Labour of around 20 points.
Meanwhile, Reform is trending upwards, and is now on level pegging with the Liberal Democrats.
Mr Farage added that, while he worked with the Conservatives in 2019 – facilitating an 80-seat majority – he now wants “nothing to do with” them.
Speaking about the common policy grounds he has with the PopCon group, Mr Farage said: “There is a clear majority in the country for border controls, a huge demand amongst nearly six million people running their own businesses to get the regulators off their backs and free them up.
“These are the things that leading Conservative figures and Reform figures agree on.”
Among the Tories who addressed the conference were Ms Truss, Lee Anderson and Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg.
Between them, they challenged the government’s position on smoking bans, the approach to net zero, the European Convention on Human Rights, tax and quangos.
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Ms Truss said the current government was failing to take on “left-wing extremists”, and also encouraged “secret Conservatives” to come forward to campaign and stand for the party.
Also in the audience were former home secretary Priti Patel, ex-chief whip Wendy Morton, former Tory Party chair Sir Jake Berry, Brendan Clarke-Smith, and Tory peer Lord Frost.
Sir Jacob told Sky News that he would like to see the UK leaving the ECHR as part of the next Conservative Party manifesto – but did not believe Mr Sunak would do that.
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In response to assertions he is a member of the unreachable political elite, Jacob Rees-Mogg acknowledged he has a ‘very fortunate background’, but insisted he is advocating what people want.
The former business secretary said in his speech that the “age of Davos man is over” – a reference to the World Economic Forum meeting held in the Swiss town of Davos.
Asked whether he – as someone who went to Eton and worked in finance – was part of the elite, Sir Jacob told Sky News that he makes “no bones” about being from a “very fortunate background”.
He went on to say that what he wants to see is more power given to parliament and not arms-length bodies so there is more accountability for his constituents.
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Sir Jacob disagreed with Mr Farage’s assessment of the Conservative Party’s future, saying that he believes it will “carry on a bit past Nigel Farage”.
“I don’t mean to criticise Nigel, but the Tory Party has a very long history,” he added. “It manages to keep on going – it’s rather the Duracell bunny of political life.”
Thousands more Afghan nationals may have been affected by another data breach, the government has said.
Up to 3,700 Afghans brought to the UK between January and March 2024 have potentially been impacted as names, passport details and information from the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy has been compromised again, this time by a breach on a third party supplier used by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
This was not an attack directly on the government but a cyber security incident on a sub-contractor named Inflite – The Jet Centre – an MoD supplier that provides ground handling services for flights at London Stansted Airport.
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July: UK spies exposed in Afghan data breach
The flights were used to bring Afghans to the UK, travel to routine military exercises, and official engagements. It was also used to fly British troops and government officials.
Those involved were informed of it on Friday afternoon by the MoD, marking the second time information about Afghan nationals relocated to the UK has been compromised.
It is understood former Tory ministers are also affected by the hack.
Earlier this year, it emerged that almost 7,000 Afghan nationals would have to be relocated to the UK following a massive data breach by the British military that successive governments tried to keep secret with a super-injunction.
Defence Secretary John Healey offered a “sincere apology” for the first data breach in a statement to the House of Commons, saying he was “deeply concerned about the lack of transparency” around the data breach, adding: “No government wishes to withhold information from the British public, from parliamentarians or the press in this manner.”
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The previous Conservative government set up a secret scheme in 2023 to relocate Afghan nationals impacted by the data breach, but who were not eligible for an existing programme to relocate and help people who had worked for the British government in Afghanistan.
The mistake exposed personal details of close to 20,000 individuals, endangering them and their families, with as many as 100,000 people impacted in total.
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A government spokesperson said of Friday’s latest breach: “We were recently notified that a third party sub-contractor to a supplier experienced a cyber security incident involving unauthorised access to a small number of its emails that contained basic personal information.
“We take data security extremely seriously and are going above and beyond our legal duties in informing all potentially affected individuals. The incident has not posed any threat to individuals’ safety, nor compromised any government systems.”
In a statement, Inflite – The Jet Centre confirmed the “data security incident” involving “unauthorised access to a limited number of company emails”.
“We have reported the incident to the Information Commissioner’s Office and have been actively working with the relevant UK cyber authorities, including the National Crime Agency and the National Cyber Security Centre, to support our investigation and response,” it said.
“We believe the scope of the incident was limited to email accounts only, however, as a precautionary measure, we have contacted our key stakeholders whose data may have been affected during the period of January to March 2024.”
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