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. Farage was not at the event in central London, where there was a large media attendance in anticipation of a possible political comeback during the event billed as “Richard Tice and guests”. Tice said the former Ukip leader was committed to Reform. “I think you can be very confident that Nigel is committed. He’s already our president. I mean, you could just take away the honorary title and call him President Farage alongside a possible President Trump,” he said. Farage – whose dominant shareholding in Reform makes him a “person with significant control”, according to its Companies House listing – told the Guardian he had never said he was going to come to the event. “I’m honorary president. It was Richard’s show today. All I will say is: never say never,” he said, when asked if he was coming back to assist Reform. Farage declined to say whether he would appear on stage at an event in February in Doncaster, where Reform is expected to announce its candidate list for the general election, but added: “It’s obviously going to be an important day.” Recent polls have put support for Reform as high as 11% and it has pledged to stand in every constituency in England, Scotland and Wales in the general election, threatening to exacerbate the Tories’ electoral challenges by wiping out the majorities held by dozens of Rishi Sunak’s MPs. “In the new year, the special pleading has already started. ‘Oh, please don’t stand here. Please don’t stand. I’m one of the nice guys,’” Tice said, referring to calls that he claimed he was routinely getting from Conservatives, as he reiterated that there would be no special deals “under any circumstances” with Sunak’s party. The Tories won a majority in 2019 after Reform’s previous incarnation, the Brexit party, did not field any candidates against them in the 317 seats which the Conservatives won in 2017, in return for Boris Johnson’s commitment to leave the EU by 2020 before pursuing a Canada-style trade deal. He declined to say how many Conservative MPs or councillors he was talking to, only that it was “quite a lot”, and claimed many “disgruntled” Tory donors were also speaking to him. At the press conference, where he attacked the Conservatives on taxation and immigration, he said the Tory deputy chair, Lee Anderson, was “terrified that Reform is going to put him out of a job”. Reform previously denied it had been offering financial incentives to MPs to defect to it, amid claims Anderson was offered “a lot of money” last month. The Conservatives issued a response on Wednesday through their party chair, Richard Holden, who said a vote for Reform “will only strengthen Labour’s hand”. “The Conservative government is focused on long-term decisions for the country – stopping the boats, driving down inflation and cutting taxes. If voters want real action to deliver a brighter future, the Conservatives are the only choice,” he said.