James Cleverly has accused Nigel Farage of being a “socialist” as the Shadow Housing Secretary launched a furious tirade against the Reform UK leader.

Mr Cleverly labelled Mr Farage a “socialist” as he drew boos from a packed crowd at the Institute for Economic Affairs’s evening drinks on Sunday.

Mr Cleverly said: “It is more important now than at any time that I can remember, because the so-called champions of the right, led by one Nigel Farage.

“The second that he thinks there are more votes to be had in disillusioned blue-collar workers, who want state subsidies and state handouts, his Thatcherite, Reaganite instincts, desert him.”

Mr Cleverly also echoed comments made by The Times columnist Matthew Syed, claiming Mr Farage “is not a racist but is a socialist”.

The Reform UK leader, whose Clacton constituency is just 35 miles from Mr Cleverly’s seat of Braintree, has become a major topic of conversation across all conferences held in the autumn of 2025.

Opinion polls suggest that Reform UK is leading Labour by around 10 points, with the Tories languishing in a distant third on just 16 per cent.

Mr Cleverly, who was once rather sceptical about leaving the European Convention on Human Rights, was in the running to face-off against Mr Farage little over a year ago.

The ex-Foreign Secretary finished third in the race to replace Rishi Sunak as Tory Party leader, missing out on the membership ballot by just four votes from Conservative MPs.

During her introductory conference speech, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch joined Mr Cleverly in taking aim at Mr Farage, singling out the Reform UK leader over his plan to curb Channel crossings.

Mrs Badenoch said: “Reform just shout that we should ‘leave’ the ECHR without any plan to do so or understanding any of the consequences.

“They are practising that old, failed politics I talked about. That politics of announcements without a plan. That’s the way to chaos and failure.”

MORE ON THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY:

• Tory donor who funded Kemi Badenoch’s leadership campaign defects to Reform UK
• Reform UK unveils biggest defection yet as Tory Shadow Minister joins Nigel Farage’s party
• Reform would take UK to a ‘very dark place’ says Sir Mel Stride as he rules out merger with Tories

However, Mr Farage simply joked: “More people have joined Reform in the past 24 hours than were in the room for Kemi’s conference speech.”

Mrs Badenoch’s decision to go on the attack about migration also comes after Merlin Strategy found that the public named Reform UK as the party best-equipped to stop the boats.

Reform UK came out on top after receiving the support of 35 per cent of Britons.

Labour cemented a distant second place on 18 per cent, leaving “don’t know” on 18 per cent and the Conservative Party on 17 per cent.

Despite attacking Labour over the small boats, more than two-thirds of Channel crossings – 129,483 out of a total of 186,976 – were carried out while the Conservative Party was in power.

Mrs Badenoch is hoping her seven-part migrant plan will help turn the tide, sparking calls from Reform UK insiders that the Tories have “copied” Mr Farage’s plan.

However, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp told GB News yesterday morning that the Tories had come up with a “proper plan”.

He added: “When we say we will do whatever it takes to stop illegal immigration – we mean it and we have a proper plan to do it. We are the only party who can say this.”

However, Mr Cleverly remains in an electorally precarious position ahead of the 2029 General Election.

Polling aggregators at Nowcast suggest that Reform UK is leading the Tories in Braintree by more than 16 per cent.

Mr Cleverly retained his Essex constituency by seeing off a threat from Labour by just 7.5 per cent of the vote in the 2024 General Election.

Reform UK secured a distant third place on just 23.1 per cent of the vote, some 12.4 per cent behind Mr Cleverly.