ARCH Brexiteer Steve Baker says there is no place for toxic Nigel Farage in the Conservative Party.
The top Tory minister said Reform UK’s leader was not someone he would want to work with.
Steve Baker says he wouldn’t want to work with Nigel Farage
ReutersHe said Farage is ‘toxic and dangerous’[/caption]
Dan CharityTory minister Baker was grilled by The Sun on Sunday’s Political Editor Kate Ferguson[/caption]
And that there is no space for him in the Tory party.
“Unfortunately, the way Nigel Farage speaks particularly about minorities is extremely unhelpful and toxifies a number of debates,” the Northern Ireland minister said.
He told The Sun’s Never Mind The Ballots: “I particularly called him out in relation to what he said about Muslims.
“Some of my best supporters and pillars of the community here in Wycombe are British Muslims.
“I know people are worried about the rise of political Islam. But quite honestly, when I go to the mosques here I find senior figures in the mosques here worried about the rise of political Islam.
“So Nigel’s an exemplar of a mistake that people make. They worry about radicals and then they tarnish the reputation of a whole community. And that’s quite wrong.
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“So that’s really my beef with Nigel. He says things which are extremely unhelpful and which are in danger of, in the end, spreading alarm amongst members of the public quite unjustifiably.”
Mr Baker also fumed at former home secretary Suella Braverman who openly said they should welcome Mr Farage into their ranks.
“As much as I don’t wish to get into a row with Suella, I parted company with her over the way she dealt with a very sensitive issue – tarnishing the reputations of a wider community – and it’s just not acceptable in our country to do that.”
Pressed on what he was referring to, he said it was her comments on grooming gangs.
It comes as Tory MPs wrestle over how to deal with Mr Farage as Reform UK rises in popularity.
If the polls are correct, Tories could be reduced to their lowest number of seats since their party was formed in 1834.
And it would mean an immediate civil war between surviving MPs over the future of the party.
Commons leader Penny Mordaunt has branded Mr Farage a “Labour enabler” and warned that a vote for Reform UK will hand Sir Keir Starmer the keys to No10.
Farage’s party overtook the Tories in an opinion poll for the first time last week as he declared: “We are now the opposition”.
And another poll this week predicts Reform could win up to seven constituencies in the General Election on July 4.