T his weekend, Keir Starmer heads to Liverpool to celebrate his 158-seat Commons majority and plot how Labour can keep the Conservatives in opposition for a decade. But the party conference that really alarms the Tories starts on Friday in Birmingham. There, Nigel Farage will share celebratory pints and cigarettes with up to 4,000 Reform supporters — turnout that could rival what the Tories can muster in the same city the following weekend.
The Tory fear is that Reform UK looks like the official opposition. Senior Tories think Starmer — elected with the lowest vote share won by a modern prime minister — is beatable. But only if the right is united.
And to do that the Tories, in particular the four vying for the leadership, must answer the Farage question..