Fresh calls to ‘unite the right’ as local elections suggest Nigel Farage will fall short of a majority and need the Tories to keep out nightmare Labour-Green coalition

The Conservatives and Reform must strike a deal to ‘unite the Right’ ahead of the next election to prevent the formation of a hard Left government, a senior Tory has warned.

The analysis shows that Reform UK will not be able to achieve an overall majority in the House of Commons if local election results are transferred to the general election.

A forecast by polling firm Rallings & Thrasher suggested Nigel Farage would win around 284 seats based on yesterday’s vote share; That’s slightly less than the 326 seats needed to govern alone.

The Conservative Party will lose 25 seats, far fewer than previously predicted, and could form a comfortable majority of 77 seats in a coalition with Reform.

Rallings & Thrasher said Labor would be reduced to just 110 MPs but mathematically Sir Keir Starmer could hold on with the support of the Liberal Democrats, SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party.

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, the great leader of the Conservative Party, said: ‘This is indicative of the need to reunite the Right.

‘Reform is going extremely well in places that voted Leave. The Conservatives are showing they can still do well in less Brexit-averse areas. If you combine the two you have an unstoppable force.

‘The alternative is to have a general election with the Reform in the mid-20s, the Conservatives in the late 20s and eventually a ruling coalition of the Left.’

It was warned yesterday that Reform and the Conservatives must work together to defeat the far-Left Labour-Greens-SNP coalition

Senior Tory Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg has made fresh calls for the Conservative Party and the Reform Party to finally come together

His call comes at a time when the Conservative Party is finally showing signs of a comeback after years of being hammered at the ballot box.

While losing hundreds of seats, Kemi Badenoch surprised pollsters by winning two key battleground councils in London.

The Conservative Party bucked the trend in Wandsworth and Westminster, taking them back from Labor who won in 2022.

In Westminster, where important areas such as Buckingham Palace, the West End and Belgravia are located, the Conservative Party won 32 seats against Labour’s 22 seats.

In Wandsworth, south of the river, once known as ‘Thatcher’s favorite council’ for its notorious history of very low council taxes, the Conservative Party also managed to reclaim the crown from Labour.

While Keir Starmer is heading for electoral extinction, figures suggest he can cling on as Prime Minister by relying on hard-left parties like the Greens

A Rallings & Thrasher analysis for Sky News found Reform would fall well short of a majority

Ms Badenoch also fended off a major effort by Reform UK in Bexley, south-east London, and comfortably retained the council despite recent polls showing it was neck-and-neck.

In Harlow, the Conservative Party was defending six of the 11 seats up for election.

Dan Swords, the council’s Tory leader, said: ‘Reform said they would win the full 11.’

‘The Conservatives won all 11 with record turnouts and majorities. Extraordinary.’

Despite losing nearly 500 seats, Conservative MPs across the party suggested Badenoch was now seen as an asset and there was no longer any doubt in his position as leader.

A Scottish MP argued: ‘I think the Kemi project should go ahead, it’s clearly an asset.

‘We need to find out what’s causing the drift between us [the party] and him.”

A shadow cabinet minister in Essex added that doorstep hostility towards the Tories had largely ‘disappeared’.

They said: ‘Kemi is definitely making a recovery, she’s definitely positive at the moment.’

A third shadow front member told the Daily Mail that despite losing control of the party’s own council there was ‘no way it’s going anywhere’. It’s been there for a long time and I think we’ve been the most united we’ve been in the last five or six years.’

‘We have a lot of work to do. But one of the things that surprised me on the doorstep was that the brand was not popular, but stood out in a way I haven’t seen since my days campaigning for David Cameron.’