\u2018No pact\u2019<\/p>\n
Asked to elaborate, he said: \u201cNobody can really predict, and I\u2019m not going to predict, what that relationship should look like \u2014 whether it\u2019s even a coalition, whether Reform merge with the Conservative Party, whether it\u2019s a \u2026 supply and confidence agreement or whatever it might be.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut there\u2019s going to have to be a very practical decision made. Because, again, in my view, because I\u2019m a Conservative, I think the next few years are going to be terrible for the country. I think things are going to get a lot worse.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so again, if you want grown-up politicians on the center right to work together, and things don\u2019t change, and it looks like the right is split right down the middle \u2014 that if it was unified it would deliver a significant majority in the U.K. parliament \u2014 then, you know, at that time, over the next couple of years, there are going to be decisions to be made.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAgain, what that looks like I don\u2019t know. But I think a coming together in some form of Conservative and Reform is the best thing for the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Houchen, who was granted a peerage by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2023, stressed that he would remain a Conservative, unlike ex-colleagues \u2014 such as Greater Lincolnshire mayoral candidate Andrea Jenkyns \u2014 who have defected to Reform.<\/p>\n
Reform is tipped to gain hundreds of council seats and a small number of elected mayors at local elections in England next week, while the Conservatives \u2014 fighting seats that were won on a high point during the Covid pandemic in 2021 \u2014 face hundreds of losses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018No pact\u2019 Asked to elaborate, he said: \u201cNobody can really predict, and I\u2019m not going to predict, what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[8719,5109,748,1193,33,393,4884,1198,25809,384,1144,24488,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-47067","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-andrea-jenkyns","10":"tag-boris-johnson","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-british-politics","13":"tag-elections","14":"tag-england","15":"tag-great-britain","16":"tag-kemi-badenoch","17":"tag-mayors","18":"tag-nigel-farage","19":"tag-northern-ireland","20":"tag-robert-jenrick","21":"tag-scotland","22":"tag-uk","23":"tag-united-kingdom","24":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114393923310961730","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}