“This weekend is when Reform UK comes of age,” bellowed Nigel Farage at his party’s largest-ever conference in Birmingham over the weekend, as he both revelled in its unexpected election success and looked to strengthen its future ambitions.
Farage and Reform “shook up” the general election in July, capitalising on the Conservatives’ failing fortunes to win five seats in Parliament and come “third in the popular vote”, said Politico.
That was a “warning shot to the established political parties”, and while the Reform leader continued to reinforce his upstart message of defiance to the existing members at the conference, it was the declaration that the party must now begin “taking itself seriously” to make future progress.
‘Capitalise on disillusionment’
Ahead of the conference, Farage announced he would relinquish control of the party, which had been set up as a limited company, to its members and set up as other political parties do. That change was one of the initial signs that Farage is looking to make the party “fit for the long-term future”, said The Independent. There are also likely to be “wide-ranging changes” to the party’s structure as it looks towards its next big test at local elections in England next year.
That will be a building block towards the next general election when Reform hopes to “capitalise on disillusionment” of Labour and Tory voters to gain more seats, said Politico.
But to get there, the party needs to “professionalise”, Farage said, as he “urged his party to learn from the Liberal Democrats” and focus efforts on “local activism and winning seats on councils” to “attract middle-of-the-road voters” sick of “endless scandals”, said the BBC.
‘Self-forced errors’
If Reform is to attract those disillusioned voters it must also rid itself of the “self-forced errors” it made in the last campaign, said Katy Balls in The Spectator. The party “is already working on candidate selection”, she wrote, after it blamed poor vetting for getting caught in racism rows involving prospective candidates.
By distancing itself from these controversies, Farage believes the party can challenge Labour as it did with the Tories in the last election. While immigration remains Reforms “cause célèbre” and will push Labour on any “shortcomings”, it will also hope to attack Labour’s “austerity” and any job losses caused by its “so-called green transition“.
There is a sense that Farage is approaching Reform’s future with “hard-headed pragmatism”, hence the “dull but important changes” announced at the conference, said Politico. But while he’s given “members control of the party” and pushed them to pounce on public disillusionment, Farage “is still its main attraction”.