‘No pact’
Invited to develop, he said: “No one can really predict, and I will not predict what this relationship should look like – whether it is even a coalition, that the reform merges with the Conservative Party, whether it is a … Agreement of supply and confidence or anything.
“But it will be necessary to make a very practical decision. Because, once again, in my opinion, because I am a curator, I think that the next few years will be terrible for the country. I think things will get worse.
“And there again, if you want adult politicians on the center to work together, and things do not change, and it seems that the law is divided in the middle – that if it were unified, it would provide a major majority in the British Parliament – then you know, at that time, in the coming years, there will be decisions to be taken.
“Again, what it looks like not to know. But I think that meeting in a form of conservative and reform is the best thing for the country.”
Houchen, who obtained a peerage from former Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2023, stressed that he would remain a curator, unlike former colleagues – like the candidate for the town hall of Grand Lincolnshire, Andrea Jenkyns – who defeated the reform.
The reform should earn hundreds of council seats and a small number of mayors elected during local elections in England next week, while the conservatives – fighting seats that were won on a high point during the cocovited pandemic in 2021 – face hundreds of losses.
Politices
