Over 70 per cent of Conservative members believe former UKIP leader Nigel Farage should be allowed to join their party if he were to seek membership, a survey has found.
The survey, conducted by the Conservative Home website, shows 72.27 per cent of those asked say Farage should be admitted to the Conservative Party, should he seek membership.
23.53 per cent said he should not be admitted if he sought membership, while 4. 2 per cent said they “don’t know”.
The question of whether Nigel Farage, the former Brexit Party leader, should join the Conservatives was a recurrent theme at the party’s annual conference held last month.
Farage proved something of a star attraction at the conference, with him attending to carry out presenting duties for GB News.
During the conference, Conservative Party chairman Greg Hands responded “No, no, no” when questioned whether Farage should be admitted to the Conservatives.
He told the i: “I don’t think that Nigel Farage is truly a Conservative with a large C. He spent most of his political career trying to damage and undermine the Conservative Party.”
Hands insisted that a “decision had been taken” to allow Farage to attend the conference as “a media person rather than a political person”.
In an apparent response to Hand’s flat denial, Nigel Farage subsequently joked that “I’d be very surprised if I were not Conservative leader by ‘26. Very surprised”.
He told PoliticsHome that “They think I’m joking. … I’m serious”.
Although he later admitted the statement was made “in jest”.
Hands aside, other card-carrying Conservatives have seemed more welcoming. And Jacob Rees Mogg has said the Conservatives should “roll out the red carpet” to bring Farage into the fold.
Prime minister Rishi Sunak, when asked if he would admit Farage into the Conservative Party, has said: “I welcome lots of people who want to subscribe to our ideals, to our values”.
Farage was a member of the Conservative Party until 1992 when he left over the Maastricht Treaty.
He went onto become a UKIP MEP and in 2006 UKIP leader. He serves as the honorary president of Reform UK, the restyled Brexit Party, after he was succeeded as leader by Richard Tice.
Conservative Home’s survey panel consists of over 3,300 members of the Conservative Party, who receive the survey by email. Any party member can join the panel, and must send their name, email address and a copy of their membership certificate to the website.
Politics.co.uk is the UK’s leading digital-only political website, providing comprehensive coverage of UK politics. Subscribe to our daily newsletter here.
