Jacob Rees-Mogg says he's 'open' to the idea of Nigel Farage rejoining the Tories

Nigel Farage MEP and Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg (right) meet at a Bruges Group event. Photograph: Isabel Infantes/PA. - Credit: EMPICS Entertainment

Tory Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg has said he would be open to the idea of former UKIP leader Nigel Farage joining the Conservative party.

Rees-Mogg, the chairman of the European Research Group, told LBC Radio: ‘If the Conservative party could reunite with the reasonable elements of UKIP that would be very good news and Nigel would be part of that.’

He said that such a move would ‘be much easier now than it would have been when he was still a member of UKIP’, because of the eurosceptic party’s new links with Tommy Robinson.

Farage quit UKIP last year over current leader Gerard Batten’s association with Robinson, the co-founder of the English Defence League.

Rees-Mogg added: ‘It may be a little bit early, though personally I hold Nigel in the highest regard and think he was one of the people who was instrumental in delivering Brexit… but perhaps a little bit more purdah is required.’

Farage has claimed that he will run again to be a Member of European Parliament if Article 50 is extended and European elections take place.

There is suggestions he could form a new party should Brexit not be delivered, but for now his party of choosing was a ‘work in progress’.

He said: ‘There are lots of parties out there that one could pick up and use right now. I’m working on it.’