Blow-Up on British Right Sets Up Vote Split at Next Election

The dramatic sacking of a senior Conservative and his defection hours later to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK all-but ended the chances of any deal to unite the British right, confirming the next general election as the most widely contested in decades.

Some Tories had held out hopes they could forge a pact with the insurgent Reform party that has rapidly eclipsed them in voter affections. The fallout from leader Kemi Badenoch’s shock decision to fire her rival Robert Jenrick on Thursday put that further from reach.