Nigel Farage could be a future Conservative leader because of the shift to the right, former Tory chancellor George Osborne has said.
The hard-right ex-Ukip and Brexit Party leader was given a warm welcome at the Tory conference in Manchester earlier this week – raising the prospect he be brought into the party.
Mr Farage was feted by Tory members, seen dancing with former home secretary Priti Patel, while Mr Sunak left the door open to his membership.
Mr Osborne warned that Mr Farage – having pushed the Conservatives to the right during the Brexit wars – could create “Farage-ism” inside the Tories as the party shifts further to the right.
“He’s a sort of Pied Piper character and he is leading the Tory party to his merry tune – again. You would have thought they would have learned their lesson,” he said on his Political Currency podcast.
“If Nigel Farage was given membership of the Conservative party … then you have opened the door to Farage-ism inside the Tory party, not led by his proxies but by Farage himself,” said Mr Osborne.
The former chancellor added: “It’s not inconceivable that if the Conservative party lost the general election, and if Nigel Farage had rejoined as a Tory party member … then he could be a potential future leader of the Conservative party.”
The Tory grandee said he would be “appalled” by a Farage takeover – predicting that he would mean “condemning the Tory party to many years in the political wilderness if that happens”.
Mr Osborne said Donald Trump showed that it was far easier for an extreme populist to “take over one of the main parties than to run as a small party or as an independent”.
Nigel Farage at the Tory party conference
(Antony Medley)
His co-host Ed Balls, the former Labour shadow chancellor, said: “Why have Farage lite when you can have the real thing?”
Mr Farage attended a speech on the conference fringe by former PM Liz Truss, saying he believed in her “100 per cent”.
The prominent Brexiteer was feted by activists after he turned up on a GB News pass, and was videoed dancing with Ms Patel to Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.
Mr Sunak left the door open to a possible return for Mr Farage – describing the Tories as a “very broad church” when asked about his membership prospects. He said: “I welcome lots of people who want to subscribe to our ideals, to our values.”
Mr Farage was dismissed the prospect of joining the party anytime soon, claiming he had achieved “a lot more outside of the Tory party than I ever could have done from within it”.
But he also flirted with the idea of joining in future. “Let’s see what happens,” he told BBC Newsnight. They are going to lose the next election. There will then be the most enormous battle for ideas. If it became a real Conservative party I might think about it.”
David Cameron and George Osborne have condemned HS2 decision
(PA)
Meanwhile, Mr Osborne again attacked Mr Sunak for scrapping HS2’s northern leg. His revealed why his closest political ally, the former PM David Cameron, said it was the “wrong decision”.
Mr Osborne said he had spoken to Mr Cameron after the Sunak speech – and revealed former Tory leader was angry. “He is understandably very cross at this charge that the Cameron premiership didn’t focus on long-term decisions,” he said.
The ex-chancellor also said he doubted that Mr Sunak would succeed in getting voters to think he represented “change” – and noted that he failed to present any new economic policies.
Mr Sunak tried to present himself as the agent of change, saying there was an “undeniable sense that politics just doesn’t work the way it should” and promising to fix a “broken system”.
“Is he really the living breathing change? He looks like he’s been a politician for a long time,” said Mr Osborne. “I don’t think he’ll necessarily pull it off.”
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