Nigel Farage is ‘trying to destroy the Conservative Party’, says Lord Cameron.

Lord Cameron has accused Nigel Farage of “trying to destroy the Conservative Party by standing for Reform”.

The foreign secretary told The Times: “I want to be as sure as we can that we get no Reform members of parliament and the Conservative Party can move forward.”

His comments came after Reform this week overtook the Tories in a poll for the first time. A YouGov survey put Mr Farage’s party on 19 per cent, ahead of the Tories on 18 per cent. Labour remained way out ahead on 37 per cent.

Lord Cameron accused Mr Farage of being “incredibly divisive” in his language on immigration. “Don’t forget Enoch Powell stopped Britain talking about immigration for 20 to 30 years,” he said. “I think with these populists what you get is inflammatory language and hopeless policy.”

Elsewhere, the former prime minister criticised Labour for planning a tax raid if they win the election on July 4. “There’s nothing here apart from a bunch of spending plans that would mean higher taxes,” he said.

He also issued an implicit rebuke of Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the House of Commons, after she described Rishi Sunak’s decision to leave last week’s D-Day commemorations early as “completely unacceptable”. Lord Cameron said: “I choose my words carefully.”

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