Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage mull joining forces

Plans for Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage to join forces and realign the right after the next general election have started to take shape.

Boris Johnson is reportedly wanting back in on the action. Pictrure: AFP

Plans for former British prime minister Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage to join forces and realign the right after the next general election have started to take shape after the Tories suffered a setback in the local elections.

Mr Farage has told friends that he has been “in touch” with Mr Johnson in recent weeks, though the communications appear to be taking place between intermedi­aries rather than in person.

Allies of both men want to find a way of them uniting in the next parliament and recreating the ­coalition of voters who won the 2019 general election.

Mr Johnson has recently told people that he is considering when the time might be right to re-enter the frontline political fray.

“Boris is beginning to think out loud about when and how he could come back,” a well-placed source said. “So far people have been doing this on his behalf, but it’s significant that he now seems prepared to discuss this himself.”

The scenario that his allies ­believe might be plausible is if whoever is elected as leader of the Conservatives after a general election defeat is failing to make headway after a couple of years. A Johnson ally could then stand aside, allowing him to return as an MP, where he could become leader again or act as kingmaker.

Mr Farage has been publicly clear that he is actively considering whether to return as leader of the Reform party and whether to stand at the general election. He has previously lost in seven attempts to become an MP, but polling suggests he could win Clacton, a seaside seat in Essex once held for the UK Independence Party (Ukip) by Douglas Carswell.

The Tories performed poorly on Thursday, losing close to 500 council seats. Despite acting as a cap on the Conservative vote, Reform also failed to achieve the kind of breakthrough that characterised the Ukip surge against David Cameron’s Conservatives a decade ago.

The Tories suffered a 26 per cent swing against them in the Blackpool South by-election and only narrowly beat Reform into third place.

Reform’s 17 per cent was widely seen as an underperformance, however.This makes a reverse takeover of the Tories more ­attractive than trying to get a rump of Conservative MPs to ­defect to Reform.

One scenario under consideration would see Mr Farage get into the Commons and then ­defect to the Tories if Mr Johnson returned to the helm.

Mr Johnson’s team denied that he had recently talked spoken directly to Mr Farage and stressed that he had voted Conservative on Thursday, denying that any plotting was authorised by him.

A spokesman said: “Boris Johnson’s No. 1 priority is campaigning for Ukrainian victory and lasting peace. He is ­focused on that.”

The Sunday Times