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Nigel Farage is toxic and dangerous – there’s no place for him in the Tory party, blasts minister
Tory MPs wrestle over how to deal with Reform UK rising in popularity
TORY minister Steve Baker said there is no place for Nigel Farage in the Conservative Party because he "toxifies" debates.
He accused Reform UK's leader of "tarnishing the reputation" of a whole community with his attacks on Muslims.
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The Brexit hardman also launched a blue on blue attack on Suella Braverman, slamming her for saying child grooming gangs were "almost all British pakistani".
"Unfortunately, the way Nigel Farage speaks particularly about minorities is extremely unhelpful and toxifies a number of debates," the Northern Ireland minister said.
Asked if Mr Farage should join the Tory Party, Steve told The Sun's Never Mind The Ballots: "Not while he continues to speak of minorities in the way that he does.
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"I would just observe that as far as I know, one of the people who said that of Nigel was Suella.
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“As much as I don't wish to get into a row with Suella, I parted company with her over the way she dealt with a very sensitive issue – tarnishing the reputations of a wider community – and it's just not acceptable in our country to do that.”
Mr Baker was instrumental in persuading the Brexit Party - Reform's previous name - to stand aside in 2019. It enabled Boris Johnson to reach his stonking 80-seat majority.
However, Mr Baker says he has "beef" with Mr Farage over his comments about the Muslim community.
Steve said some of his best supporters and pillars of the community in his Wycombe seat are British Muslims: "Nigel says things which are extremely unhelpful and which are in danger of, in the end, spreading alarm amongst members of the public quite unjustifiably."
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It comes as Tory MPs wrestle over how to deal with Mr Farage as Reform UK rises in popularity.
If the polls are correct, Tories could be reduced to their lowest number of seats since their party was formed in 1834.
And it would mean an immediate civil war between surviving MPs over the future of the party.
Commons leader Penny Mordaunt has branded Mr Farage a “Labour enabler” and warned that a vote for Reform UK will hand Sir Keir Starmer the keys to No10.
Farage’s party overtook the Tories in an opinion poll for the first time last week as he declared: “We are now the opposition”.
And another poll this week predicts Reform could win up to seven constituencies in the General Election on July 4.