A Tory shadow minister has admitted that he would serve in a Cabinet alongside Nigel Farage, adding that he "could see him as Prime Minister".
Sitting down with GB News Political Editor Christopher Hope at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, Andrew Rosindell lauded the Reform leader, dubbing him a "good man" and patriot.
"Look, I've known him a long time. He used to be a member of the Conservative Party. He's a good man. He's a patriot and you could see him as Prime Minister," he admitted to GB News.
"Could I serve in a Government with Nigel? Yes, but it would probably be a Conservative-Reform coalition. I have no problem with that."
Christopher Hope sat down with Andrew Rosindell at Tory Party Conference
|GB NEWS
But when it comes to working with Reform in practice, Mr Rosindell said that it was "essential that the right of centre find a way of working together", and he would have "no problem" with working with the populist party to keep Labour out of power.
"It's beyond my pay grade to talk about who becomes Prime Minister. It's all about who wins the most seats. All I'm concerned about is that we don't have Keir Starmer or whoever his successor is going to be leading this country, backed up by a load of left wing parties.
He added that there's "enough in common between Reform and Conservative" to work together, including the Unionists in Northern Ireland too.
"For goodness sake, let's think about what's best for our country. Let's unite together. Defeat the left and rescue Britain."
LATEST ON REFORM UK DEFECTIONS - READ MORE:
His sentiment is not unique amongst his colleagues, with plenty of Tory MPs anticipating losing their seat at the next election while their popularity plummets at the polls.
In April, Tory Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen pushed the idea of the two parties working together "to create a significant majority" to keep Labour out of power.
After the votes are counted, "obviously there's going to be a conversation to form a coalition or some sort of pact", he added. However, leader Kemi Badenoch has insisted that a deal is not on the cards.
Ahead of appearing at the party's Conference over the weekend, the Tory leader announced that the Conservatives would take Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) if handed the keys to No10 at the next election.
Mr Rosindell said that Nigel Farage was a "good man" and backed him as a patriot
|GB NEWS
"The good news is that, on policy initiatives, we're already aligning. So HR, human rights, immigration. It sounds like actually we're pretty much following a similar positive split the vote from the right," Mr Rosindell told the People's Channel.
However, he admitted that he felt some worry about the amount of Tory MPs who are projected to lose their seat at the next election under current polling.
"I think at the moment my seat would almost certainly go to Reform. I think the whole of Essex would go Reform," he added.
Pollsters at Ipsos Mori have projected that 34 per cent of voters would support Reform, while only 14 per cent would back the Tories at the ballot box.
"I think a lot of seats where good colleagues who are standing in Liberal Democrat facing areas would lose because many of our voters would go Reform, reducing the Conservative vote," Mr Rosindell added.