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I don’t know Nigel Farage personally, but like him I know what it is like to be targeted by a disdainful establishment and their luvvie friends.
When he was ‘debanked’ by NatWest, it was Conservative ministers like Andrew Griffith and I who intervened and worked quietly behind the scenes to put right that injustice. Labour would not have lifted a finger. I know for a fact that they would have taken the side of the banks, because that is exactly what their shadow ministers did at the time.
Reform’s leaders have been clear about their aim in this general election. Not to win it, but to ensure that the Conservatives lose so badly that the party cannot recover.
But what will happen if the leaders of Reform get their wish? For a start, just imagine what Labour would have done if they had been in power when the banks started taking away their accounts? What fate awaits Nigel Farage, Richard Tice and their colleagues if they preside over a great thinning of the conservative ranks?
I can tell them now. Endless harassment. Impotence. And the slow destruction of all they claim to hold dear.
With no serious opposition, the Labour MPs I have watched for seven years would use all the might of the state to destabilise and marginalise organisations like Reform and anyone anywhere close to it.
Imagine, for example, a world where a new head of OfCom is appointed who is sympathetic to Labour views. They would instantly be encouraged to police the views expressed on GB News, lobbying to get the channel taken off air, as many Labour MPs still try to do.
Voting Reform splits the Conservative vote and lets Labour in. There’s no two ways about it.
Reform’s leadership may be angry with this Conservative Government for not living up to their hopes, and many good people may be tempted to vote Reform because they share that sense of disappointment and frustration. But if there is unhappiness at what this Government has left undone, it will be as nothing compared to the pain they will feel at what an unchecked Labour government will do.
The benefits of Brexit not fully realised? Wait until Labour replicate the rules of the single market by stealth, implementing EU regulations without a vote, giving up our reclaimed fishing grounds without a moment’s regret.
Migration too high? Well, Labour has said they will scrap the Rwanda scheme, they are proposing what will effectively be an amnesty for illegal migrants already here.
If you think the Conservatives have not been effective at fighting what some may call “wokery”, wait until a Labour government that actually loves this stuff comes in.
The Labour manifesto includes new laws that enshrine even more divisive obligations, like an additional Race Equality Act. Look at how eagerly Labour MP Dawn Butler rushed to agree with actor David Tennant that I should “shut up” about protecting women’s only spaces from extremist gender ideology.
If you don’t believe me, ask the Labour MP Rosie Duffield, who has been gaslit and marginalised by Labour’s leadership, simply for telling the truth about what a woman is and why we must protect women and girls from predators. If Labour treat one of their own in that way, imagine what they will do to the country, let alone people from Reform?
If Reform are successful in shrinking Conservative representation in Parliament then it can only swell Labour’s numbers. And the Commons will be a very cold house for the two or three Reform MPs that you get in exchange for 150 Conservative ones.
A lot of time has been spent on the Reform candidates and many of the foolish and offensive things they’ve said.
However, I think it is more important to point out that while Reform may be correct in identifying what is wrong, they have no idea on how to put things right.
For instance, by using detailed evidence and attention to the facts from the Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparities, I was able to take on, and defeat, the radical Left’s ploy to use Black Lives Matter to divide our society. It took two years to do this painstaking work, as we debunked fake claims and exposed real injustices, including those facing white working class boys. The argument was won and proper Conservative action was followed.
That sort of approach doesn’t appear to interest the Reform leadership. They are noise-makers not change makers. Their preference for performing rather than delivering would leave the field clear for Labour to do its very worst. And the people who would suffer most are the people who Reform claim to stand up for - the overlooked and undervalued decent and conservative majority of this country. But that majority will be left defenceless by Reform if they get their wish and gift Labour a super-majority.
We must not surrender to Labour and lock them in for a generation. That is the outcome I will do everything I can to prevent.
A version of this article was originally published in The Telegraph on the 1st July 2024, during the election campaign.
