Boris Johnson has predicted that Nigel Farage’s Reform UK will soon drop to zero per cent in the opinion polls.
The former Prime Minister made the staggering prediction after being unable to muster up a single “serious” Reform UK policy, before hitting out at Mr Farage’s pledge to scrap two-child benefit cap.
“I think it’s completely mad,” Mr Johnson said.
In turn, the former Prime Minister claimed the Tories will look to rebuild their following by offering “serious, sensible policies on things that people really care about”.
The ex-PM sat down with GB News presenter Ben Leo
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GB NEWS
Recalling his stint as Prime Minister, Mr Johnson pointed out that Reform was “very low” in the polls, hovering somewhere between zero and three per cent under the stewardship of Richard Tice.
Mr Johnson added that this figure is “where they should be and where they will be again”.
However, Find Out Now’s latest poll puts Reform UK’s support at 32 per cent, down just three per cent from last week’s survey.
Meanwhile, the Tories jumped to just 17 per cent, rising by three per cent.
Mr Johnson expressed further concerns about Reform UK’s stance on foreign policy, comparing Mr Farage’s party to the AfD in Germany and Marine Le Pen’s National Rally.
“I think they’re all particularly worrying is on foreign policy and Ukraine in particular, and on Putin,” the former Prime Minister told GB News presenter Ben Leo.
“I look back at some of the things that Reform have said about Nato provoking the war in Ukraine and I shudder.”
Last year, the Clacton MP came under fire for suggesting that the West “provoked” the Russian invasion when they expanded the European Union and Nato military alliance.
However, Mr Farage has since insisted that Russian President Vladimir Putin was to blame for the European war.
But Mr Johnson persisted with his scathing criticism of the populist party, saying: “It is really, really worrying to think that you could have Putin apologists running this country.”
Since the breakout of the Ukraine war, Mr Johnson has been an ardent ally of Volodymyr Zelensky, previously admitting that he was “quite sad” about Britons’ disinterest in the matter these days.
Additionally, he has not entertained a return to Westminster politics, but has insisted that he will continue to talk about the matter of Ukraine.
PA
Mr Johnson also appeared to throw his weight behind Kemi Badenoch as the “future of the Tory Party”, adding that the Conservatives “will recover”.
However, Mr Johnson advised his former Conservative colleagues to continue to target young voters, including through Mrs Badenoch’s plan to abolish stamp duty.
He said: “It was absolutely the right thing to do.”
Despite being billed as the Tories’ “biggest political event of the year”, the Conservative Party Conference was described by some attendees as “dead”.