Farage could hand Labour a landslide, says Dudley candidate Marco Longhi
A Conservative election candidate has admitted his party has little chance of winning next month's General Election – and warned Nigel Farage that he is in danger of opening the door to a Labour landslide.
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Marco Longhi, who is seeking to retain his seat in Dudley on July 4, warned that Labour could be in power for a decade if Reform UK is successful in splitting the right-of-centre vote.
Mr Longhi said there was little difference in outlook between Tory right-wingers such as himself and Reform UK.
"I have spoken to the leaders of Reform, and I know what they want to achieve, their main aim is to just punish the Conservative Party.
"I know Nigel and Richard Tice have said 'no deals' with the Tories, they feel they have been badly let down after 2019.
"I can understand that.
"But there is no point in them standing against MPs such as myself who hold broadly the same views, and as a result electing a left-wing MP in my place."
Mr Longhi said he expected Labour to be in government after the election, and it would fall to those on the right of the political spectrum to form a new opposition.
But he said if Reform's leaders conspired to unseat MPs who held similar views to themselves, the party will find themselves with few friends in Parliament.
"We will need to be trying to rebuild the right-of-centre," said Mr Longhi.
"I fear they could be handing Labour a landslide win, which could see them in power for the next 10 years.
"If you vote for Reform, you will be voting for Brexit in name only. You will have open borders because if we rejoin the single market or the customs union, we will be obliged to accept anybody who is granted asylum in EU countries such as France and Italy.
"Is that what they want?
"We might find ourselves where we are in the position of having Nigel Farage, and maybe Lee Anderson, on the opposition benches in Parliament, sat next to George Galloway and Jeremy Corbyn."
He said a split in the right-of-centre vote could see many normally safe Conservative seats fall to left-leaning Labour candidates.
"They will end up with MPs who don't share my views on immigration and wanting to leave the European Court of Human Rights," he said.
"It feels like there is going to be an overwhelming win by Labour. Why target certain MPs who have a track record of Reform-type politics?"
