Top Tory sparks fury with call to stop ‘extremist’ Reform MPs being elected in deleted post

Kemi Badenoch's Deputy Chief Whip has sparked fury with a call to stop "extremist" Reform MPs being elected in a deleted post.

Paul Holmes, the MP for Hamble Valley, received backlash after saying that "the only way to stop an extremist Reform MP in Hamble Valley is to vote Conservative".

The Tory MP was responding to Sir Ed Davey saying the Liberal Democrats "won't give up the fight" against Nigel Farage's party at his keynote conference speech yesterday evening.

Mr Holmes has since deleted the post following furious criticism over the ill-received outburst.

Responding to the deleted post, former Conservative Robert Jenrick told GB News: "The fact a senior Tory MP thinks deporting all illegal migrants, reversing the Boriswave and ending Net Zero is 'extreme' shows you they haven't changed at all.

"The Tory Party is stuffed full of Lib Dems who care about their reputation at dinner parties rather than putting the British people first.

"This is why they've become irrelevant in huge swathes of the party."

Since assuming new leadership, the party has committed to axing Net Zero and deporting all illegal immigrants, as well as taking Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights.

GB News has approached the Conservative Party for comment.

Last December, the Tories fell under fire after its chairman, Kevin Hollinrake, compared Reform's logo to one used by the Nazis.

The MP attracted a slew of damning criticism after reposting an image of the Reform logo alongside a screenshot of an image showing a Nazi badge from the 1930s.

Following several days of controversy, Mr Hollinrake apologised and said he did not want to "offend any reasonable Reform voter".

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He added there was "no way" he would compare Mr Farage's backers to those of Adolf Hitler.

At the time, Mr Hollinrake told GB News: "I wasn’t saying that at all. That was just how some people misinterpreted it.

He continued: "It was not about Reform UK. It was about Nigel Farage’s judgment, his taste.

"And I thought it was probably an error of judgment, that’s the point I was making. And it was conflated and taken out of all context by some other people."

"If people have taken offence by it, of course, I don’t want to offend any reasonable Reform voter.

"For many people, I can understand why they vote Reform because they’ve lost trust in other parties and we’re trying to rebuild that trust under a strong leader."

The senior Tory added: "If people are taking offence by it, I apologise for any offence I have given, of course.

"But that’s not the spirit it was meant in and certainly many people that are currently planning to vote Reform or voted Reform in the past, I have respect for, so no way in the world I was calling those people what’s been said I was calling them."