What's Nigel Farage up to? The Reform UK party leader launched his 'Contract with You' policy document in a deprived part of Merthyr Tydfil, south Wales today.
Farage himself said that it was aimed at disaffected Labour supporters - but its main target is surely disgruntled Conservative supporters.
Many of the policies are pure Conservative Viagra, a Tory manifesto on steroids. Take 30,000 more full-time members of the Armed Forces. Or frontloading benefit payments to let parents stay at home in the early years.
Or pulling out of the European Convention on Human Rights. Or taxing companies which rely on immigrant labour. Or rewriting -history lessons at school so children are taught about other countries' imperial and slave-trading past.
Nigel Farage has unveiled Reform UK's "contract with voters" today, warning that Britain is "broken"GBNAll of this would be paid for through £150billion worth of savings including the immigration tax (£4billion), benefits crackdown (£15billion), cut foreign aid (£6billion) and scrapping net zero targets (£30billion).
The Institute for Fiscal Studies was sniffy about whether these savings were realistic. While Cabinet Minister Michael Gove dismissed Farage as "not someone who can govern this country".
None of this bothered Farage though, in fact, he was probably expecting it. This was never meant to be a programme for government, but a cri de coeur aimed squarely at the Tory Right.
No wonder one headline on the Telegraph's website tonight said simply it was "the Conservative manifesto that never was".
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Nigel Farage has launched his contract for BritainGB NewsSo what's next? Farage made clear his plan is to win a "beachhead" of seats in the House of Commons and build a mass movement over the next five years. And then what?
Farage refused to say he would not join the Tories (he told me it was "extremely unlikely"). But he didn't rule out trying to persuade any right-wing Conservatives who survive what the polls suggest would be a Tory Armageddon on July 4.
"I don't think the Conservative Party will reform itself," he told me. "There are people in there that are friends of mine, who I'm close to, I very much hope they come and join me….Suella and people like Jacob [Rees-Mogg], they're in the wrong party."
So there we have it. Farage and his chairman Richard Tice baited their hook. How many Conservatives will bite? And will it be enough to destroy the Tory party as we know it?
That, without question, is Farage's ultimate goal. His Contract published today is his first attempt at making it happen.
