Keir Starmer warns Tory-Reform pact will be 'disaster for Britain' as voters 'conned'

Keir Starmer has warned a Tory-Reform coalition would be "disaster for Britain" as he accused the right wing parties of conning voters with stitch-up pacts.

Ahead of Thursday's local elections, the Prime Minister said reports of deals being cut "behind the scenes" could mean voters lose out. Kemi Badenoch ruled out a national pact with Nigel Farage's party on Sunday, but left the door open to forming pacts at a local level.

It comes as the Tories brace for a battering at the polls, with Reform expected to gain hundreds of councillors. Voters will go to the polls in 23 council areas across England and elect six mayors. Meanwhile a by-election to replaced ex-Labour MP Mike Amesbury in Runcorn and Helsby is expected to be a tightly fought contest.

Mr Starmer was asked whether he was more worried about Reform than the Tories as he visited a health centre in Lancashire. He told Sky News: "I would challenge either of them.

"The Tories have got a terrible record - 14 years of failure. Reform moan about everything, but have got no answers. And at the end of the day, Reform and the Tories, there's all this talk about them getting together and merging.

"If you're a Tory voter who doesn't want a pro-Russia foreign policy, how does a merger with Reform work for you? If you're a Reform voter that thinks the Tories have failed for 14 years, how does a merger or coalition with the Tories work for you?"

He added: "Both sets of voters are being conned, because behind the scenes and behind the leader of the opposition, other people are looking for a coalition of these two parties. It would be a disaster for Britain."

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, whose party currently holds around half the seats up for election on Thursday, said the Conservatives need to "fight for every single vote". She said: "This is not a referendum on national issues, but local ones.

"I've been travelling all around the country, and one of the councillors I was with, we were on a doorstep, and he showed a leaflet of Reform saying 'we're going to stop the boats'. That's not what people are voting on on Thursday. We have said that we are going to tackle immigration, but this week's elections are about who's going to fix the roads, pick up the bins."

It comes as pollsters said Labour must focus on the economy to see off the threat from Reform and unite its coalition of voters. Analysis of 8,846 voters by Persuasion UK found that Keir Starmer faces a greater threat of losing voters to the Greens and the Liberal Democrats than Reform, including in ‘Red Wall’ seats.

The threat from Reform to Labour has been overestimated due to the false assumption that Reform has already attracted large numbers of Labour voters, researchers said. The survey found that 74% of people who voted Reform at the general election have not backed Labour since 2005.

“Reform curious” voters - those who voted for Labour in 2024 but said they could back Nigel Farage’s party in future - are more likely to back wealth taxes, investment in public services and Net Zero than those who voted Reform.

Steve Akehurst, Director of Persuasion UK, said: “While there is a clear risk in Labour being complacent about the Reform threat, there is also a risk in over-reacting. To win next time they will need to balance both sides of their coalition.

"The good news for Labour is there does seem to be a way to do this. Combining moderate positions on ‘culture war’ issues while championing economic populist policies on public spending, wealth inequality and clean energy appear to work here."