Conservative MPs are pleading with Reform UK not to stand against them in the general election, the leader of the rightwing populist party has claimed.

Richard Tice also said Nigel Farage – who said last year he believed he would be leading the Conservative party within three years – would play a formal role in Reform’s election campaign.

The party announced on Wednesday that Ben Habib, its deputy leader, would stand in the upcoming Wellingborough byelection in a move that will make it even harder for the Tories to defend a seat that Labour is hoping to take for the first time since 1997.