The Tory Party is considering a complaint to Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle after MPs said they had been approached with a £400,000-plus ‘bribe’ to join Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party.
Sources said a number of Conservative MPs ‘have reported to senior party staff that they have been offered significant financial incentives to defect’.
They say the offers were based on an agreement that if they joined Reform UK – founded with support from Mr Farage in 2018 as the Brexit Party – they would be guaranteed to receive several years of their MP’s salary if they lost their seat after defecting.
From this April, MPs’ pay will rise to £86,584, or well over £400,000 for a full Parliament.
Reform UK, of which Mr Farage is Honorary President, dismissed the incentives claim last night and accused the Tories of peddling ‘desperate nonsense’.
This offer is that if they should do so and lose their seat at the next General Election, then Reform would pay them between three and five years’ worth of their MP’s salary.
The ‘bribe’ claims come after Reform leader Richard Tice ruled out a pact with the Conservatives at the next General Election and threatened to field a candidate against every Tory MP.
With Rishi Sunak’s party trailing Labour badly in the polls, the threat has sparked fears of a ‘True Blue’ wipeout at the Election, which is expected in 2024.
‘Last night, a Reform UK spokesman dismissed the Conservative claims of wooing potential defectors with financial incentives.
Summary above derived from this News Link -> Fury among the Tories after Conservative MPs claim they were offered a ‘£400,000 bribe’
