Could Nigel Farage really be a future Tory leader?

George Osborne thinksNigel Farage could be a future Tory leader.

After Farage attended the Conservative conference this week - at which he watched a speech by Liz Truss and danced with Priti Patel - Rishi Sunak left the door open for Farage to return as a member after describing the party as a “very broad church”.

Ex-chancellor Osborne, speaking on his and Ed Balls’ Political Currency podcast, said: “If Nigel Farage was given membership of the Conservative party… you have opened the door to ‘Farageism’ inside the Tory party, not led by his proxies but by Farage himself.

He added: “It’s not inconceivable that if the Conservative party lost the general election, and if Nigel Farage had rejoined as a Tory party member… then he could be a potential future leader of the Conservative party.”

Farage joined the Tories in 1978 when he was still in school but left in 1992 in protest to John Major signing up to the Maastricht Treaty which established the EU.

He founded UKIP in 1993.

Why are we talking about this now?

Behind in the polls and with Labour increasingly appearing on course for Number 10 in the next general election, some consider the Conservatives under Sunak to be lurching to the right in order to boost his electoral prospects. Consider last month’s reversal of net zero policies, for example.

Farage believes the views he holds, that were once seen as extreme, are now more widely accepted. "Those things we have fought for have become quite mainstream within the Conservative Party. I was welcomed with open arms," he told ITV.

And though he has said he won’t be returning to the party because it stands for "nothing I believe in", he did caveat his answer by saying he wouldn't return "as it stands now".

Speaking about Farage on Tuesday, Sunak had said: “I welcome lots of people who want to subscribe to our ideals, to our values.”

Sunak's view was in contrast to Tory chair Greg Hands, who said he would not welcome Farage’s return. And, aside from the likes of Jacob Rees-Mogg, there’s not exactly scores of Tory MPs openly calling for him to rejoin.

Indeed, as of Friday, Farage’s name wasn’t even listed on betting comparison site Oddchecker’s list of next possible Tory leaders. By contrast, a figure as unlikely as Matt Hancock is still listed as an outside bet.

What do you think? Do you agree with George Osborne?