Laurence Fox reveals he will try to replace Boris Johnson as an MP in his Uxbridge seat after a by-election was triggered by ex-PM’s decision to quit parliament over Partygate
- The former Lewis actor is to run in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election
- Reclaim has done a non-aggression pact with the Reform Party in west London
Reclaim Party leader Laurence Fox is to make his first attempt to win a Westminster seat by standing in Boris Johnson’s former constutuency.
The former Lewis actor is to run in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election triggered by the ex-PM’s decision to quit Parliament over Partygate.
Mr Fox is to run after agreeing a ‘mutual co-operation agreement’ with the Reform Party that will see it run only in Mid Bedfordshire.
He previously ran to be London mayor in 2021 but finished sixth with just 47,634 votes to Sadiq Khan’s 1.2million.
Mr Johnson has yet to formally resign and trigger the vote, likely to be held in the middle of summer, which could signal exactly how badly the Conservatives’ hopes of winning the next general election are.
Labour’s candidate Danny Beales is seen as having a good chance of winning the seat, and a guerilla campaign by a right-wing candidate like Mr Fox could make it easier by stealing Tory votes.
Mr Fox said: ‘The Reclaim Party and Reform UK offer the only genuine conservative alternative to the electorate, seeking for a smaller state, lower taxes, control of our borders and a full debate over net zero and the contentious ideologies being forced onto our children in schools.’
The former Lewis actor is to run in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election triggered by the ex-PM’s decision to quit Parliament over Partygate.
Mr Johnson has yet to formally resign and trigger the vote, likely to be held in the middle of summer, which could signal exactly how badly the Conservatives’ hopes of winning the next general election are. Labour’s candidate Danny Beales is seen as having a good chance of winning the seat, and a guerilla campaign by a right-wing candidate like Mr Fox could make it easier by stealing Tory votes.
Uxbridge by-election candidates so far:
Laurence Fox – Reclaim
Danny Beales – Labour
Blaise Baquiche – Lib Dems
Reclaim already has one MP in the Commons after the defection of former Tory MP Andrew Bridgen. The North West Leicestershire MP was thrown out for drawing a comparison between Covid vaccines and the Nazi Holocaust.
Reform leader Richard Tice added: ‘This cooperation enables us to have extra focus on specific by-elections. We have been campaigning for some time in Mid Bedfordshire.
‘Many people feel totally let down by the two main parties that are both variants of socialism: high tax, nanny state, low growth and open borders. We stand for low tax, high growth and net zero immigration.’
Mr Johnson hit back at Rishi Sunak for ‘talking rubbish’ today as the row over honours for MPs threatened to plunge the Tories deeper into crisis.
The PM stoked tensions this morning by launching an open attack on his predecessor, saying he had demanded he act in a way that ‘wasn’t right’.
He said he had not been willing to overrule the House of Lords Appointments Commission by deferring peerages for Nadine Dorries and Nigel Adams until the general election, or promise to give awards in the future. ‘I didn’t think it was right and if people don’t like that then tough,’ he said.
But in a statement this afternoon Mr Johnson said: ‘Rishi Sunak is talking rubbish. To honour these peerages it was not necessary to overrule Holac – but simply to ask them to renew their vetting, which was a mere formality.’
The clashes over the premier’s long-awaited resignation honours list came as ministers dismissed criticism of the Commons privileges committee as a ‘kangaroo court’.
The cross-party group of MPs is finalising its report into allegations that Mr Johnson recklessly misled Parliament over Partygate.
The findings are set to be released in the coming days, and are expected to make clear that they would have recommended a 20-day suspension. Seeing a draft version of the report was what triggered Mr Johnson to declare on Friday that he will stand down from Parliament.
The committee – which has a Labour chair but a majority of Tory members – could also call for Mr Johnson to be barred from the parliamentary estate for questioning its integrity.
Mr Sunak is struggling to quell a Tory civil war with the prospect of three by-elections looming. Along with Mr Johnson’s resignation, his allies Ms Dorries and Mr Adams have also announced they are standing down with immediate effect.
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