MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: A protest vote now could haunt you for many years to come

Imagine a House of Commons so totally dominated by Labour that scores of Keir Starmer’s MPs spread over on to what are normally the Opposition benches.

Imagine a Prime Minister’s Question Time at which the Left can completely drown out the few remaining Conservative voices.

Picture a Government with such a huge majority that it can ignore all rebellions and plough on, like a freight train, with anything it wishes to do.

If Labour now cruises to the huge majority the polls appear to predict, it will be more or less unstoppable. For the first 18 months of government, it will be as powerful as an actual dictatorship, and the phrase ‘elective dictatorship’ will often be used to describe it by those who have just been flattened by its power.

Yet, bizarrely, many former Tory voters seem determined to bring this situation about by voting Reform. Their basic mistake is to imagine that the composition of the Commons will reflect the numbers of votes cast. That is not how our system works.

Leader of Reform UK Nigel Farage. Each Tory voter who thinks he or she can safely vote for Reform increases the danger of a Labour super-majority

Imagine a House of Commons so totally dominated by Labour that scores of Keir Starmer ’s MPs spread over on to what are normally the Opposition benches

Even if Reform voters do overtake the Tories, the only effect in Westminster will be that more Tory MPs lose their seats, not that more Reform candidates will win.

Today we publish a guide to this effect in action, and it shows that this is no time to be toying with a gesture.

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The peril of a totally Labour-dominated Parliament, for years to come, is very great. Yet it would need no more than a five per cent swing from Reform to the Tories to keep dozens of seats out of Labour’s hands.

It works the other way as well. Each Tory voter who thinks he or she can safely vote for Reform increases the danger of a Labour super-majority.

We might add that, whatever you may think of your Tory MP, you need to be extremely careful about electing some of Nigel Farage’s followers.

The Reform Party, without much experience or skilled organisation, has few of the necessary safeguards against fools and worse.

Our investigations of its candidates have uncovered a number of pathetic and repellent racial bigots, along with a man who was recently fined £2,000 for kicking a dog.

Given the state of Reform, and the short notice given for the election, it is highly likely that more of the same sort will slip through and on to the ballot paper.

The House of Commons. If Labour now cruises to the huge majority the polls appear to predict, it will be more or less unstoppable. For the first 18 months of government, it will be as powerful as an actual dictatorship

Discontent against the Conservatives is completely understandable. The Mail on Sunday has had many criticisms of the Government and of the frequent misguided actions of Tory MPs during the past 14 years. But it would be odd if Tory voters used their ballots to elect and strengthen a government that will, by any calculation, be considerably worse.

Reform leaders speak of punishing the Tories. But those who will be punished by a Keir Starmer victory will be mainly the conservative, patriotic people of this country.

We are quite sure that, given a moment to reflect on this, most of our readers will decide this is no time to take risks.

The clearest warning that danger threatens is the way in which Labour simply will not level with the British public about what it plans to do.