Reform MP Sarah Pochin today called for a ‘coming together’ between right-wing parties ahead of the next general elections.
The party’s first female MP has warned that voters should not be let down by “bickering” between rival groups, who must be able to look at the “bigger picture”.
She urged her fellow politicians to “rise above” personal attacks on each other as they try to prevent it Work retain power the next time the country goes to the polls.
Ms Pochin narrated an event at the reform conference Birmingham that she would feel “devastated if the right destroys itself.”
Her comments came despite the reform leader Nigel Farage And Tory leader Kemi Badenoch both have repeatedly ruled out an electoral pact.
There are also tempered expectations about a proposed deal between Reform and Restore Britain – the rival right-wing party founded by Rupert Lowe.
Reform UK’s Sarah Pochin today called for a ‘coming together’ between right-wing parties ahead of the next general election
Her comments came despite Reform leader Nigel Farage and Tory leader Kemi Badenoch having both repeatedly ruled out an electoral pact.
Speaking live on the Daily T podcast, Ms Pochin said: ‘The most important thing is that the parties on the right do not allow the left to get through again and we have to face another general election in which Labor could succeed.
‘How that happens will take some negotiating, but I would feel devastated if the right destroys itself.
‘We cannot let right-wing voters down because of arguments. We need to be able to look at the bigger picture if we’re going to save this country and get it back on a trajectory that I think most of us in this room want.
“Something has to come together on the right side.”
Asked about the exchange of political attacks between Reform and the Tories in recent months, the MP for Runcorn and Helsby added: ‘I don’t really get into all these kinds of personal attacks at all. I don’t do Twitter.
‘I don’t like it, of course I am sometimes the victim of it, but I don’t do it myself. I think we have such big problems to deal with. I feel a great sense of responsibility.’
She continued, “I think we need to rise above all this talk and think about the enormous mission we are on. That must be the driving force. Not all this nonsense.
‘Can I say one thing – and I apologize to all the men in this room – there is a big difference between men and women, because women don’t really have such big egos. We will continue with the job.’
Mr Farage said last month he was “open-minded” about holding talks with Mr Lowe following the Restore leader’s surprise offer to “unite the right” and take on Labour.
Mr Lowe, the MP for Great Yarmouth, was initially elected to Parliament as a Reform representative at the 2024 general election.
But he left the party last year after a furious row with Farage and other senior reform figures.
Reform movement insiders have since played down the chances of a deal being struck between Mr Farage and Mr Lowe, after the Restore leader refused to sack his party’s controversial top aide, Charlie Downes.
The rising popularity of Restore Britain has raised concerns among some within Reform that it is eroding support for Farage’s party.
And Mrs Pochin said that Mr Lowe ‘must think very seriously about the damage he may be doing to the reform vote.”
“We’re actually on the same page, aren’t we, we’re talking to the same people,” she added.
Nadine Dorries, the former Tory Cabinet minister who defected to the reforms last year, also said there was a need for the ‘Right to Unite’ when she appeared on the same podcast.
But her and Ms Pochin’s pleas for unity came after Home Office spokesperson Zia Yusuf said the party should try to destroy the Tories rather than strike a deal with them.
Mr Yusuf used his conference speech to launch an attack on the Conservatives during their time in power, telling reformist members: ‘We are not here to make a deal with con man Kemi, we are here to put the Tories out of business.’
