Reform U.K. has just concluded a very successful two-day conference at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) Birmingham on September 20th and 21st 2024.
This follows on on from its Election Rally on June 30th, just days before the General Election held on July 4th, where Nigel Farage, party leader, correctly predicted the party would win a few seats.
In retrospect this was an amazing achievement because for a while it seemed that Reform U.K. would not break the uniparty system. By-election and local election results had not been as good as they needed to be to indicate a breakthrough was on its way.
Credit though to Richard Tice who led the party through a difficult period. He was determined, persistent and ambitious, and together with his colleagues eventually made success happen.
This was helped by an unexpected turn of events: on May 22nd, the then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak surprised many, including those in his own party, by calling a July election.
It was suspected that this was done so that Reform U.K. and the Workers Party of Great Britain would be caught off guard and would not be able to field a credible number of candidates. It worked with the Workers Party, who would have mainly been a worry to the Labour party, and it managed to field 152 candidates.
However, Reform U.K., which was a younger party by a few months, managed to field a very credible 609 candidates.
After initially saying he was not going to stand in that election, Nigel Farage said on June 3rd that he would stand and also resume leadership of the party.
This gave a morale boost to the party, and against almost impossible odds with only a few weeks to prepare, the party achieved over 4.1 million votes and five MPs.
This was significant because Nigel Farage’s former party, UKIP, which had helped bring about the EU Referendum, achieved its best General Election performance in 2015 with 3,881,099 votes and a 12.6% vote share. Reform U.K. only needed to achieve a few more votes to vastly increase its number of MPs, especially as it placed second in several constituencies. This is shown by the fact that the Liberal Democrats, who achieved 3,519,199 votes with 12.2% vote share, elected 72 MPs. One of the worst examples is Plaid Cymru, who gained four MPs with just 194,811 votes.
Boris Johnson’s “breach of trust”
One of the key problems Reform U.K. had to face were the consequences of its decision to withdraw candidates against Conservative candidates in the 2019 General Election. This resulted in a large Conservative majority and full taking back control from the EU was not completed.
At the conference, Nigel Farage accused former Prime Minister Boris Johnson of a “complete breach of trust” and that Britain had been “betrayed”.
This however did damage the credibility of Reform U.K. and numerous candidates were not best pleased to be withdrawn from standing at the last minute.
It now seems that Nigel Farage and Reform U.K. have put this issue behind them and that was reflected by the very positive mood of the conference.
Nigel Farage’s closing speech at the conference said there was one word which epitomised the theme of the conference and the party moving forward, and that was optimism.
Going by what has been achieved by the party so far and the upbeat conference speeches by all five Reform U.K. MPs and other very credible speakers, there was an air of aspiration and ‘we can do’ among the 4,000 strong attendees.
Nigel Farage had relinquished his 60% share control of the party and through a constitutional change passed at the conference the party is now owned by its members.
They were asked to drive the party forward, so that there are constituency associations throughout the U.K., and it seems they have plenty of incentive to do so.
This is all part of the new professionalism of the party in line with its new democratic member control.
Nigel Farage stated what many people had advised, including my articles analysing political parties, that Reform U.K. needed to model itself on the constituency-community organisational efforts of the Liberal Democrats to win more seats.
Certainly, Reform U.K. has come of age and the conference celebrated an historic journey.
The conference was informed that Reform U.K. is currently the fastest growing political party in the U.K. with over 80,000 members already.
There is a feeling that Britain is broken, that Britain can do better, and that Reform U.K. is the party to fix the nation’s problems.
The party’s five MPs showcased their political talents and how they can benefit their constituents and their country by being active and constructive members of Parliament. They are the forerunners, the pioneers, the pathfinders, those who show the way, the same as Lee Anderson, the former Conservative MP who had the courage to become Reform U.K.’s first MP when he defected from the Tories in March, has been the guide and tutor to his four new MP colleagues.
Example of disillusioned turned campaigner turned the tables
The youngest Reform U.K. MP, James McMurdock (Basildon and East Thurrock) is 38 and married with four children.
There is an interesting story about how he became an MP which will resonate with many people who do not vote or invalidated their ballot paper.
Two months before the election he was someone in that category. He felt that politics in the U.K. was broken and could not be fixed.
He found out about Reform U.K. and joined. Weeks later he was asked to be a candidate, in fact theoretically what is known as a ‘paper’ one.
He and his wife and a small group of helpers rallied round, and he ended up becoming elected – by the slim margin of 98 votes, after three counts and 15 hours!
So, his example shows that disillusionment can be turned around into delight.
If more people can be persuaded that rather than being switched off from political involvement, there are benefits to being switched onto it, then with the County Council and other elections coming up next year, there is every chance of starting the process of taking back control at a local community level.
Reform U.K. intends to fight the 2,000 Council seats in 2025 and then the Wales and Scottish elections.
They are full of optimism that belief creates reality.
All the Reform U.K. MPs spoke well, some obviously more accomplished others.
The one not mentioned so far is Rupert Lowe, MP for Great Yarmouth, who particularly impressed the attendees with his call for the U.K. to repeal various U.K. Parliamentary Acts and withdraw from various international treaties and bodies.
Professor Matt Goodwin, another good speaker, made the case for Reform U.K. sticking to core issues such as immigration, cost of living and feeling safe and secure. He is right in there is a case for keeping the political message simple, but it is also important to have policies on every issue.
There was an element of key policy avoidance at the conference. This is understandable as the very capable conference moderator Dr. David Bull’s attempt at a sympathetic comment to Ukraine and Israel drew little applause. These issues have to be faced, and the reality is that rank and file Reform U.K. supporters do not support warmongering in other parts of the world with their hard-earned taxpayer’s money. There is also no point in demanding free speech in the U.K. if that doesn’t apply to those opposing current Government policies on Ukraine-Russia and Israel-Palestine.
One of the key speakers who really did a good job at the conference was Ant Middleton, former SAS member, TV Presenter and much more.
He promoted the concept that “anything is possible”.
He talked about political reform and how you can heal a broken country.
There is so much he said of value, which there is not room to write in this article.
However, he did say how important it was to maintain the integrity of the country, that identity is first, and we must not allow the tactics of divide and conquer to be used against us.
The Rt. Hon Anne Widdecombe, former MP and former Government minister, is the Reform U.K. Immigration Spokesperson and gave sound reasons as to why the boats with illegal immigrants can be returned to their country of departure.
Zia Yusuf, the new party Chairman, who was credited with much organisational improvement at Reform U.K., gave a speech showing his own personal motivations for wanting the party to be successful.
The coming weeks and months will be important for Reform U.K.
If the party can carry forward the momentum from the conference and turn it into further progress then it has every chance, as Nigel Farage said, of being the governing party of the U.K. in five years’ time.
With politics being so uncertain, who knows if a General Election will be called sooner.
It seems unlikely but the current Government is so unpopular and the allocation of MP seats to votes is so unfair that reform really needs to happen sooner rather than later.
Campaigners for direct democracy are likely to get Reform U.K. backing (as well as that of other parties) for their Swiss style citizen democracy and referendum proposals.
There is a lot happening politically.
Compromise to achieve some power?
Many people are going to decide to compromise and support or vote for a party which wants to make U.K. citizens safe and secure, and accept that they may not get all their political choices in return for some of them.
The country is going downhill fast and it is a question of saving some of it rather than perfect political solutions.
Some will argue that Reform U.K. can be a broad church which, because it will abide by decisions of its members, at least has the possibility to encompass policies and objectives which it does not have now.
On one point most supporters are united, that it is worth building a better Britain.
The values of family, country and community have huge merit.
Maybe the new Battle for Britain can be won!
Anthony Webber is an independent political commentator.
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