If Nigel Farage became leader of the Tory party….

[Diefrausagtnein]

Would it help their electoral chances ?
Apparently there’s a rumour circulating that Tory MPs want to orchestrate a coup and replace Sunak with him as he’s seen as catnip to certain voters and would improve their abysmal chances of winning the next GE. If you’re a disillusioned Tory voter would you be tempted to vote for them with Nige at the helm ? And red wall Brexiteers, would it influence a return to Labour, either way ?

I don't believe even the Tories would be mad enough to elect Farage as leader of the party.

Agreed. Surely they would already know by polling that this would be a huge mistake?

@Diefrausagtnein Brexit voter from a former red wall constituency here… nothing would EVER convince me to vote Tory but it would be even less likely if Farage was at the helm. I’m an active campaigner for Labour and cannot abide our local MP so am really hoping for a change later in the year.

I think if they did do that... and I agree it's possible, given the far right of the Tory party are firmly in positions of power at the moment... it would split the party. If it happened before the general election, it would cause huge political turmoil and I suspect a large number of Tory MPs would quit, forcing by-elections. My own local Tory MP is fairly useless and quite dim, but she's not racist.

Farage will always appeal to a particular type of person. We see it in every election - there's always that sub-set of votes for the far-right. National Front, BNP, Reform, whatever you want to call it. But he will never appeal to the majority, because most people with a modicum of sense and education know he is a fascist. If he were that appealing to voters he would already be an MP, which he has failed at seven times now (thank goodness).

I think it probably would help their election chances, yes. But a Tory government with Nigel Farage as Prime Minister would be a nightmare scenario for me and be one of the final nails in the coffin for this country.

The man is a complete charlatan and populist of the worst kind. He cosies up to the working poor by tapping into their worst prejudices and does not care one jot about them.

He is a master of ‘look over there’ politics. He points the finger at some of the weakest and most vulnerable and paints them as unworthy scroungers. This is pernicious.

We need, in this country, to look back at some of the pointed fingers and realise to whom they belong.

We would do well to realise why they seek to make scapegoats and to distract us from a growing wealth divide and where the real problem lies.

Look up. Not over there. Not down on those who have nothing. Look up. It drives me to distraction that obscenely wealthy media owners lecture us about society and tax-avoiding corporations pretend their so-called values while actively undermining social cohesion and robbing us blind.

If only we could be a grown up, fair-minded society along the lines of the Scandinavian model. We need to be progressive. But we are regressing. It’s depressing.

Him and 30p Lee could enjoy a touching bromance.

Actually, I don't think it's impossible that the membership would elect him. But I really don't think it would win them the election. Tory voters are a very broad church; noone on the centre right would want him for PM.

And I agree that it would split the party. The one nation conservatives would not want to be led by him and I'm not sure the 'old guard' would have much time for him either.

This

Whoever starts listening to the silent majority and starts putting British people first ahead of every other Tom Dick &Harry will get my vote
I won't hold my breath though 😉

The only positive that depending on how it's done it might split the party and help British politics move back towards a moderate centre ground. Pigs will fly though.

I don't believe that your average moderate centre right voter or party member agrees with the recent swing to right wing populism. It seems the conservative party has been pandering to all the ex BNP/UKIP votes at the expense moderate centre right politics.

Remember how we all laughed at Bojo and said he would never be leader?

I don't think it will help. It may help win them the hard right UKIP /Reform voters, but they would lose the home counties and most of the south west to the Lib Dems or Labour.

Nah, I always knew he'd end up leader one day. I was actually surprised it took him so long. What a horrible shame for the country that we ended up getting him during Covid.

Why would he suddenly be more popular after Brexit than he ever was before Brexit?

If the Tories do this they're no longer the Tories.

What the Tories have done is go too far right, even as a traditional Labour voter even I can see that the voting population tends to be centrist. The Tories have become too obsessed with the racist vote, which means they’re less palatable to their more moderate Con voters. You can see that in the recent by elections, the dog whistle crap is becoming toxic and inextricably linked with the types who write about wanting ‘are cuntry’ back. To be honest it’s painful, embarrassing and as a country we can do better than this race to the bottom.

So no, I don’t think Nigel Farage is the answer, he may have been in the past but we’re now seeing how none of the Brexit era type politics have brought us anything good. If I’d voted Brexit I’d have felt thoroughly cheated now.

Shit to see how many on Mumsnet are falling for their latest culture war though - transphobia.

Did we? When? I'd have said the general consensus was that he was clearly aiming to be PM for a looooong time before actually getting the gig, and that there was always a realistic chance of him getting there.

In answer to the OP, no it wouldn't. They're also not even going to attempt it while he's not an MP, and he's got a very long record of losing Westminster elections.

A lot of Tory voters are going to vote reform. Word on the doorstep.

This is a man who tried and failed seven times to get elected to parliament. Come on.

Exactly.

@bozzabollix

What the Tories have done is go too far right

"Far right"? Seriously, really? For a party that lets the NHS chomp through £1bn a day, dopes millions on benefits, and allows net migration of 700,000+ they certainly hide it well.

There is no chance of him becoming a Tory MP in any by-election this year, such as the one about to happen in Blackpool.

In any case, given the current Conservative Party, is he not a bit too moderate for them?

They hide it behind a lot of hateful rhetoric, that’s what I’m referring to.

Migration has and will always be part of the human condition, good luck with stopping that.

I didn't think it would be possible to make me less likely to vote Conservative, however, the OP has come up with a hopefully improve scenario that would make me even less likely.

@HappiestSleeping lets hope you’re not the only one !

Nigel Farage is good at getting on the campaign trail, he is an agitator he likes nothing more that to rile voters and create division

but as a politician he is useless people know this even if they agree with him a number of times he has lost the chance to become an MP in what should have been an easy win for him

he will not become the next conservative leader far to many despise him in they party but he possibly will the lead the reform party and be a thorn in the side of whoever is in power and that is exactly where he wants to be and this unfortunately he is good at

Farage went into the jungle, thought he would win it. Of course the fee was a factor, but imo it was a step back into politics. Trying to appeal to Joe Public. He got to the final, but he didn't succeed.