Former Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon has said he believes Nigel Farage will ‘disappear’ should Reform not win a significant number of seats.
Mr Hoon also said he felt the centre wing of the Conservative Party ‘has all but disappeared’ due to the influence of Reform, something he described as ‘dangerous’ for British politics.
Speaking on GB News, Geoff Hoon said: “I met [Farage] in Strasbourg when I was a Europe minister. He certainly seemed to enjoy the life in Strasbourg, even if he didn’t like the European Parliament much.
“He led a strange group. I’m not a golfer, but my distinct impression was that they had moved straight from the golf club to the European Parliament, elected for UKIP.
“He clearly was head and shoulders above them. He was articulate and capable and very thoughtful and that was an interesting exercise in meeting someone who, frankly, had been elected to the European Parliament, even though he hated the whole place.
“It’s not for me to comment on events on the right of the political spectrum, except that I think it’s highly unlikely that the party he leads are going to win more than a handful of seats.
“Even if they were to achieve, say, 20% of the poll, the chances are that they will not win many seats because their vote is spread so thinly across the country.
“Therefore, I think he’s being typically vainglorious about his prospects for the future. I suspect if they don’t win any seats, he will disappear yet again. He’s got a habit of popping up and then disappearing when things don’t quite go according to his plan.
“[Farage] certainly was [a threat in the red wall] in the past. I think that has changed. I’ve been doing a lot of canvassing, door knocking in the Midlands, and indeed [in London] today.
“I’m pretty confident that those people who supported [Farage] in the past have returned to Labour because I’ve seen the effect that the Conservatives had in those constituencies.
“I can see that he will still continue to damage the right of the Conservative Party, not only in terms of votes, but actually in terms of pulling the Conservative Party to the right, which we’ve seen over a long period now.
“And I think that’s probably the most dangerous development in British politics. It seems astonishing that the centre ground of the Conservative Party has all but disappeared and I think that’s very dangerous for British democracy.”
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Source Agencies
