A senior Tory MP has insisted his party should not entertain a pact with Nigel Farage and Reform UK at the next general election.
Tobias Ellwood, who represents Bournemouth East, insisted the centre ground is where ballots are won.
His comments come after Reform UK, formerly the Brexit Party, picked up more than 10% of votes in two crunch by-elections this week.
The former minister told GB News: “The centre ground in British politics, the floating voter, that is how you win elections.
“When you go to extremes on the right or the left you will not win the general election. Jeremy Corbyn proved that.
“The big grandees, the big beasts who’ve won elections, they have gone for the centre ground. That’s where the winning streak should be.”
Pressed on whether the Conservatives will have to consider a deal with Mr Farage and Reform UK, he added: “That takes you even further to the extreme, gifting the centre ground to Labour and then they will then win.
“This is a false strategy, it really is.”
Mr Ellwood’s remarks come after the Tories lost the previously safe seats of Wellingborough and Kingswood to Labour in by-elections last Thursday.
Reform UK, led by Richard Tice, secured 13% of votes in Wellingborough and 10.4% in Kingswood.
Mr Farage, who is Reform’s honorary president, hailed it as a “coming-of-age moment” for the insurgent party.
Mr Tice, who has ruled out any electoral pacts with the Tories, said the results showed the party had overtaken the Lib Dems as the “third-largest political force in the UK”.
