Keir Starmer has branded any future electoral deal between the Conservatives and Reform UK an “unholy alliance of austerity and failure”, sharpening Labour’s attempt to turn speculation about a right‑wing pact into a defining political faultline.

The prime minister deployed the phrase at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday after a Conservative backbencher, George Freeman, raised concerns about a deepfake video circulating online that falsely showed him joining Nigel Farage’s party. Acknowledging the danger of manipulated footage, Starmer quickly pivoted to the real defections taking place on the Conservative benches.

“If he isn’t joining Reform, other Tories are,” Starmer told MPs, pointing out that three former Conservative MPs had crossed the floor to Farage’s party in the past week. Citing reports that Farage has told donors a deal with the Conservatives is “inevitable”, he warned that any formal alignment between the two parties would amount to an “unholy alliance of austerity and failure”.

The intervention followed a report in the Financial Times, summarised by the Guardian, that Farage has privately briefed supporters he expects some form of pre‑election arrangement with the Conservatives, ranging from a pact in key constituencies to an eventual merger. Donors quoted in the piece described such a move as “inevitable”, albeit on Reform’s terms.

Publicly, Farage has dismissed the story as “false” and “ludicrous”. In comments to the FT, he insisted: “No deals, just a reverse takeover,” predicting that “after next May the Conservatives will no longer be a national party”. He has repeatedly argued that agreeing a deal with the Tories “as they are” would cost Reform votes and says he would “never do a deal with a party that I do not trust”, citing what he views as Conservative betrayal after his Brexit Party stood down in hundreds of Tory‑held seats in 2019.

The Conservative leadership under Kemi Badenoch is equally adamant that no pact is on the table. A party spokesperson said on Wednesday that the Conservatives would not be considering “any deals or pacts”, and sought to draw a sharp policy dividing line, accusing Reform of wanting “higher welfare spending” and to “cosy up to Putin”. Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, told Times Radio: “My leader Kemi Badenoch said there won’t be a deal. Nigel Farage has said there won’t be a deal, so there won’t be a deal.”

Despite those denials, Labour senses an opportunity. A party spokesperson earlier condemned what it called a “shady backroom plot”, claiming any alliance on the right would mean “Tory austerity all over again” and “savage cuts to local schools and hospitals”. Starmer’s PMQs attack tied that theme directly to the Conservatives’ 14 years in office before last year’s election and to Reform’s promises of radical tax cuts.

The row comes against an unsettled electoral backdrop. Reform has overtaken the Conservatives in several national polls and is now vying with Labour for first place. A YouGov survey in mid‑November put Reform on 27 per cent, Labour on 19 per cent, and the Conservatives and Greens level on 17 per cent. Around 20 former Conservative MPs are now reported to have defected to Reform, underlining Farage’s claim that his party is replacing, rather than merely partnering with, the Tories.

Starmer’s “austerity and failure” line also dovetails with an attempt to draw a clearer moral contrast with both right‑wing parties on welfare and living standards. Earlier in the session, Badenoch accused the government of a cynical U‑turn over the two‑child benefit cap, noting that Starmer and the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, had previously argued it was unaffordable to scrap and had disciplined Labour MPs who voted against it in opposition.

Starmer defended the decision to abolish the cap, which affects about 1.7 million children and costs an estimated £3.5bn a year to remove. He told MPs that most families who will gain are in work, and said the policy had “dragged hundreds of thousands of children into poverty”. Casting tackling child poverty as a “moral mission” for his government, he claimed Badenoch’s stance amounted to wanting to “put half a million children back into poverty” by re‑imposing the limit.

The exchanges were part of a broader, fractious session that touched on questions of racism, religion and civil liberties. Asked by veteran Labour MP Graham Stringer to rule out any “backdoor blasphemy law” in the form of a statutory definition of Islamophobia, Starmer said he would not allow that to happen. In a later question, independent MP Shockat Adam highlighted rising anti‑Muslim attacks and criticised what he saw as Labour’s retreat from adopting a clear definition of Islamophobia. Starmer responded that all forms of hatred, including anti‑Muslim hatred, must be condemned and promised the government would act to tackle it.

Away from the dispatch box drama, ministers tried to keep the focus on governing. Wes Streeting, the health secretary, defended a tightly controlled NHS trial of puberty blockers for young people, saying it followed the recommendations of the Cass review and had passed “rigorous” ethical checks, despite Badenoch urging him to halt it. Streeting also attacked resident doctors’ plans for a fresh five‑day strike in the week before Christmas, branding the British Medical Association’s tactics “juvenile delinquency” and pointing out that residents have already received a 28.9 per cent pay rise.

For now, both Badenoch and Farage insist there will be no Tory–Reform pact, while Starmer shows no sign of easing off his efforts to bind the two parties together in the public mind. With Reform continuing to siphon support from the Conservatives and Labour seeking to reframe the economic arguments after years of spending restraint, the prospect – real or imagined – of a united right looks set to remain a potent line of attack at Westminster.