Nigel Farage targeting Doncaster seats of Ed Miliband and Nick Fletcher at next election

Mr Farage's Reform UK party says he has been “testing the water” with northern Conservative MPs who are unhappy with Rishi Sunak’s leadership.

The bombshell revelation comes as the party looks at a hit list of seats they want to snatch at the next election.

It includes Ed Miliband’s Doncaster North seat and the Don Valley constituency won by Nick Fletcher for the Conservatives from Labour's Caroline Flint in 2019.

According to The Sun, one ‘Westminster insider’ familiar with the talks said: “Nigel Farage has been reaching out to the disgruntled lot.

“He has been having meetings with Red Wall Tories about the Reform Party to test the water.”

It comes days after Mr Farage issued a rallying cry to Brexit backers to ditch the Tories and back Reform UK at the next election.

Mr Farage told The Sun on Sunday he has been having talks with a number of Tory MPs — and while outright defection has not been discussed yet, “there are a lot of very very disillusioned Conservatives," he said.

Reform UK - the successor to UKIP - has seen a surge of support in the past month, with over 5,000 people joining.

Many of the new members are ex-Tories, The Sun on Sunday reported.

Mr Farage has previously been urged to stand as an MP in Doncaster and make the city ‘capital of Brexit.’