CONSERVATIVE MP Esther McVey has shot down a suggestion that she may be thinking about defecting to Reform UK.
The incident happened during PMQs Live on GB News, when McVey was questioned about a congratulatory post on X addressed to new Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin.
Asked why she did that, McVey said: “Well, because we’ve got to work together for Cheshire.
“My Labour leader of Cheshire East has also asked me to write to Keir Starmer to stop the winter fuel allowance [changes] and return it, so I will be working with people in the Cheshire area because there’s a lot to do.
“So, absolutely I congratulated her.”
Asked if she was tempted or had been wooed by Reform UK, she said: “Oh, no, Tom. Give us a break.
“What I did say, and what I do believe, is we have to get rid of this, and I will call it not a Labour but a socialist government.
“A win and a victory for Reform means one less Labour MP ruining our country.
“It doesn’t matter whether it’s net zero bonkers. It doesn’t matter if it’s the economy that are destroying, it doesn’t matter [if it’s] National Insurance contribution increases for British people but not for Indians who might start jobs here, this Labour government is absolutely systematically destroying a country I love and I believe in.
“So, one fewer Labour MP is a hooray for me.”
Labour MP Dan Tomlinson commented: “The Mayor of the Tees Valley said there’s going to have to be a coming together of the Tories and Reform in some way, maybe a coalition or a pact.
“We can see the fruits of it happening here.
“In the end, there’s this risk of, I think we used to talk of a coalition of chaos and we can see it on the horizon again when it comes to Reform.”
McVey responded: “That’s your different tribes in the Labour Party, that’s a coalition of chaos.”
