A Tory/Reform pact?

One of the national newspapers is reporting that Farage is open to some kind of electoral pact at the next general election between Reform and the Conservatives. The suggestion is that each side would stand down in constituencies where they are weaker than the other. I suspect this will never happen. Reform is a coalition. Part of that coalition is a grouping made up of former Labour voters who are socially conservative and are typically on a lower income. They are people who feel they have been abandoned by Labour. They have never voted Conservative in the past and have no intention of voting Conservative in the future. These voters are mainly in the former Red Wall constituencies.

Were there to be a Tory/Reform pact, that Reform coalition could be blown apart. So far, Farage has managed to hold together his Thatcherite wing of former Conservative voters on one side and more left-leaning former Labour voters on the other. This latter group would not rush to vote Conservative. It already looks bad to Labour Reform voters that Reform is being used as a lifeboat for former Tory MPs. If the recent trickle of former Tory MPs to Reform becomes a torrent, Reform will look more and more like Tory Party mark 2. And that could spell the end of the Reform coalition.