Lord Frost won't rule out running for Reform
Lord Frost has not ruled out running for Reform UK at a future general election.
The former chief Brexit negotiator said he was 'not emotionally committed to the Conservatives' and that he struggled to see what the party's 'USP' (unique selling point) was.
Speaking to The Telegraph's Planet Normal podcast, the Tory peer was asked whether he would rule out standing for Reform UK in the future.
' I'm waiting. What I want is a last chance really for a party on the Right that can deliver meaningful Right-wing, principled policies,' he said.
'I'm not emotionally committed to the Conservatives in the way that others are. I want the party that is going to do the job and get the job done, and let's see how that plays out.'
The former Cabinet minister said the Tories 'still haven't really clocked what the problem is' with the party and its sinking popularity following the general election wipe-out last year.
It comes after the Conservatives sank to their lowest ever poll rating recorded by YouGov, one of Britain's most reputable pollsters.
The survey, carried out on May 18 and 19, found the Tories were now in fourth place and polling at just 16 per cent.
The party lost every council it was defending at this month's local elections as Nigel Farage's Reform continued to surge.
Lord Frost told the podcast: 'I think up until maybe these local [elections] and the latest round of polling, I think the dominant view was 'we just have got to wait, it'll come right, people will turn back to us, Labour are terrible, Reform will blow up, we don't really have to do anything, it'll all be OK'.
'I think the local elections and then these latest polls that put us fourth are beginning to spook people a bit – and rightly so, in my view.'
Boris ally avoided candidacy
Lord Frost, a Boris Johnson ally, decided not to run to become a Conservative MP at last year's general election.
He had angered Downing Street at the beginning of last year when he was involved in commissioning an opinion poll that laid bare the likely impact of the Tories' unpopularity.
The following month, he was understood to have been labelled as 'deferred' on the Conservative Party's approved candidates list, which meant he could not seek to run as an MP at that cycle and would have to wait for another time.
But Rishi Sunak, the then-prime minister, said he was free to seek a seat – an offer he did not take up.
Lord Frost told the podcast: 'The idea that Reform is a wasted vote is no longer true, to the same extent, probably won't be true at all soon. I must say, I struggle sometimes to see what you get when you vote Conservative. What's the USP?
'I'm not a lifer Conservative. I only came into it… because I want to get Brexit done. For me, the political parties on the Right are vehicles for getting the right policies in place, and as soon as they fail to get the right policies in place – well, they become a bit pointless.'
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