By Anthony Webber:
Reform UK has just concluded a very successful two-day conference at the National Exhibition Centre ( NEC) Birmingham on 20th/21st September 2024.
This follows on on from their Election Rally on 30th June 2024, just days before the General Election held on 4th July 2024, where Nigel Farage, party leader, correctly predicted they would win a few seats.
In retrospect this was an amazing achievement because for a while it seemed that Reform UK 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 22nd May, the then Prime Minister, Rish Sunak, surprised many, including those in his own party, by calling a July election.
It was suspected that this was done so that Reform UK 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 they managed to field 152 candidates.
However, Reform UK, who were 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 3rd June 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 5 MP’s.
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 UK only needed to achieve a few more votes to vastly increase their number of MP’s, especially as they 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 MP’s. One of the worst examples is Plaid Cymru, who gained 4 MP’s with just 194,811 votes.
Boris Johnson’s “breach of trust”
One of the key problems Reform UK had to face were the consequences of their decision to withdraw candidates against Conservative candidates in 2019 G eneral 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 Britian had been “betrayed.”
This however, did damage the credibility of Reform UK and numerous candidates were not best pleased to be withdrawn from standing at the last minute.
It now seems that Nigel Farage and Reform UK 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, the upbeat conference speeches by all five Reform UK MP’s and other very credible speakers, there was an air of aspiration and “we can do” among the 4000 strong attendees.
Nigel Farage had relinquished his 60% share control of the party which 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 UK, 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 UK needed to model itself on the constituency/community organisational efforts of the Liberal Democrats, to win more seats.
Certainly, Reform UK has come of age and the conference celebrated an historic journey.
The conference was informed that Reform UK is currently the fastest growing political party in the UK with over 80,000 members already.
There is a feeling that Britain is broken , that Britain can do better, and that Reform UK is the party to fix the nation’s problems.
The party’s five MP’s 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 UK’s first MP, has been the guide and tutor to his four new MP colleagues.
Example of disillusioned turned campaigner turned the tables
The youngest Reform UK 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 invalidate their ballot paper.
Two months before the election he was someone in that category. He felt that politics in the UK was broken and could not be fixed.
He found out about Reform UK 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 to 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 UK intends to fight the 2000 Council seats in 2025 and then the Wales and Scottish elections.
They are full of optimism that belief creates reality.
All the Reform UK MP’s spoke well, obviously some better than others.
The one not mentioned so far is Rupert Lowe, MP for Great Yarmouth, who particularly impressed the attendees with his call for the UK to withdraw from various UK Parliamentary Acts, International treaties and bodies.
Professor Matt Goodwin, another good speaker, made the case for Reform UK 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 favourable to Ukraine and Israel drew little applause. These issues have to be faced, and the reality is that rank and file Reform UK 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 UK 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 UK Immigration spokesperson and gave sound reasons as to why the boats with illegal immigrants can be returned to their country of departure.
Zia Yusef, the new party Chairman, who was credited with much organisational improvement at Reform UK, 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 UK.
If they can carry forward the momentum from the party conference and turn it into further progress for them, then they have every chance, as Nigel Farage said, of them being the governing party of the UK 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.
There could certainly be an elected House of Lords earlier which is another electoral opportunity.
The Wales and Scottish Assembly elections are getting closer.
As Reform UK sees no point in these extra layers of government, if they are successful in these elections, it could see the well overdue end of that aspect of devolution.
Campaigners for Direct Democracy are likely to get Reform UK 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/vote for a party which wants to make UK citizens safe and secure, and accept that they may not get all their political choices, in return for some of them.
The country was going downhill fast and it is a question of saving some of it rather than perfect political solutions.
Some will argue that Reform UK 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, it is worth building a better Britian.
The values of Family, Country and Community have huge merit.
Maybe the new Battle for Britian can be won!
Believe it can happen and it will!
Anthony Webber
Independent Political Commentator
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