You can with an IMC rating... Absolutely no night pre-req for that whatsoever. In fact I went PPL>IMC>NQ>CPL etc etc... all with restricted a restricted class 2 which I only uplifted to a class 1 for the CPL.
Isn't it an option for the topic starter to get an UK IMC rating and later on converting it to a full IR within the UK CAA rules? Or isn't it posible without soloing some hours at night?