Boris Johnson has said Nigel Farage’s stance on Russia is “extremely dangerous” and Reform UK is a threat to national security.
The former prime minister’s attack comes in a week in which Reform has stepped up its criticism of what it calls the “Boriswave” of post-Brexit legal migration.
Speaking on the Harry Cole Saves the West show for the Sun newspaper, Johnson said he has “serious anxieties” about Reform’s Ukraine stance.
“My concerns, and they are serious concerns, are about the approach to the economy of the Reform party and the approach on our national security,” he said.
“We are going to need a Conservative government that is strong on defence and doesn’t believe, to take a position at random, that the problem in Ukraine was that Nato provoked Putin. I think that’s extremely dangerous.”
He also criticised Reform UK’s stance on lifting the two-child benefit cap as ridiculous.
Johnson said: “How are we supposed to explain to hard-working people that their neighbours can take more and more money from the state?
“We have got to reform welfare. We have got to spend less on public services.”
Johnson backed Kemi Badenoch as Conservative leader but did not rule out trying to return to lead the party in future, saying he was happy writing his book and working on other projects at the moment. The former prime minister also said he was convinced he could have beaten Keir Starmer last year in the general election.
He mocked Reform UK’s position leading the polls, saying: “That party was on zero when I was prime minister … and that was because we got Brexit done … Who is to say whether that party will even exist before the next election?”
Some current and former Conservatives MPs have defected to Reform, including Johnson’s one-time allies Jake Berry and Nadine Dorries, fuelling speculation of a possible alliance between the Tories and the party in future.
But asked if the Conservatives should strike a deal with Farage, Johnson dismissed the idea: “The answers to this country’s problems are going to be Conservative answers.”
He claimed the Conservatives “will come back” and described the beleaguered Badenoch as “easily the sparkiest and the most intellectually original” of current party leaders, saying she had “the right ideas”.
After the interview Zia Yusuf, Reform’s policy chief, posted a picture of Johnson mocked up as a clown on social media.
