ReutersAt their annual conference this weekend, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said his party had passed through its adolescent tantrums and was now coming of age.
But party insiders know the party still has a lot of growing up to do if it is going to seriously challenge for power at the next general election.
They certainly don’t lack ambition – their aim is to make Farage the next prime minister.
But this is not Farage’s first rodeo.
When he was leader of the UK Independence Party (Ukip), it looked for a brief moment like a smaller party would break the Labour-Conservative mould of British politics.
There is no doubt that Ukip had a huge influence in paving the way for Brexit, but it never managed to become a serious force in Parliament, and Farage famously failed seven times to get himself elected as an MP.
He finally broke his duck at July’s general election and with five MPs, Reform UK is doing better than his old party – which is still going – ever managed.
But Reform UK’s 14% vote share was not much higher than what Ukip achieved in 2015.
Reform UK faces many of the same problems of Ukip – an army of enthusiastic, but often ill-disciplined, supporters and candidates with a habit of saying racist or just plain bizarre things on social media. They admit they have no base on councils, a patchy local branch structure, and a general lack of professionalism.
ReutersFarage is keenly aware that to challenge for real power, he needs to attract middle-of-the-road voters turned off by endless scandals.
He has vowed to beef up the internal vetting of candidates, telling reporters: “The electorate punished us for having these bad apples in there. We can’t be clearer: if you are a racist bigot, there are other people you could be attracted to but it’s not us.”
The word we kept hearing at the Birmingham conference was “professionalise”.
Farage even urged his party to learn from the Liberal Democrats – something he used to tell Ukip members as well – by concentrating on local activism and winning seats on councils.
Growing pains
The first step in the professionalisation process is to turn Reform into a normal political party, rather than a limited company, with the majority of shares owned by its self-appointed leader.
At the start of the conference, Farage announced he was giving up his shares in Reform UK Ltd. Members voted through a new constitution, which makes the party a non-profit organisation and gives them a say in policy formation.
Speaking to the BBC ahead of the party’s conference, Reform UK’s chairman Zia Yusuf said: “We are serious about being the next party of government in this country, and our new constitution and structure will be fit for purpose for that mission.”
He said senior Conservative staffers in the party’s headquarters had liked what they’d seen and expressed an interest in joining Reform UK.
He’s also in talks with potential donors who had voted Labour, but were “equally disillusioned” with the party, he said.
A former banker who sold his tech start-up company for more than £200m last year, Yusuf made a large donation himself to Reform UK during the general election campaign.
A week after the election, he was appointed chairman of the party.
Reform UK reported £2.6m in donations between April and June this year – far behind those received by Labour (£28.7m) and the Conservatives (£16.3m).
The party will need plenty more donations to compete with its rivals in the future.
When asked if he was speaking to big donors in London, Yusuf said: “I can’t talk about names.
“But you’d be surprised at the diversity of people who are interested.”
From a “centre-left” student who was pleased to see President Barack Obama elected, to a Conservative Party member, Yusuf has been on a political journey to Reform UK.
Where this one ends will partly depend on whether Reform UK can scale up and localise its campaigning machinery.
The party says it has about 200 local branches already and is training local chairmen to open up dozens more.
A workshop for constituency activists was held in London a few weeks ago, and at the party conference, there was a meet-and greet with regional organisers.
Tim Power is the campaign manager for a local branch in Wallasey on Merseyside.
He said there was a vote among members to elect a leadership team and the branch was looking for a regular venue to plan its campaign activities.
“Nigel is a magnet,” Power said. “I can see there is a desire and motivation to launch Reform into this fully national presence.”
The party says these branches will be laser-focused on campaigning in target areas ahead of local elections next May.
Reform UK is aiming to field hundreds of candidates and take seats on county councils in target areas, from Essex and Lincolnshire, to Norfolk and Kent.
When Ukip was reaching its peak in 2013, the party made substantial gains in county council elections. Ukip was the opposition on the county councils in Kent and Lincolnshire, and the party was part of an alliance that took control of the one in Norfolk.
“We’ll be doing much the same when it comes to our thinking and targeting,” one party source said. “But there are different issues.”
Immigration is a major focus. The party has proposed a “freeze” on non-essential immigration.
Tax cuts and reforming the NHS are key planks of Reform UK’s offer too.
But one senior party figure said opposing net zero was likely to be as big a part of the party’s policy position as immigration come the next general election.
“We know what we generally think,” another party source said. “We know our gut, but we’ve got to try to connect our heart to our brain.”
They added: “We want voters to come to us for more than just being a plague on the other parties.”
Farage has said winning hundreds of seats in next year’s local elections would be considered a success.
But party sources tempered expectations of a Ukip-style surge.
“Ukip had a branch structure that had been going for 20 years,” one said. “We’ve got a branch structure that’s been going for 20 days.”
Beyond these forthcoming local elections, the party has reason to believe there will be a wider market for its brand of politics.
The party is organising conferences in Wales, Scotland and across the English regions in the coming months. The elections to the Welsh Parliament in 2026 are of particular interest to Reform UK, because the voting system is considered to be more favourable to smaller parties.
In the general election, Reform UK came second in 98 constituencies, and in 89 of those, Labour won. Now, a recent poll by JL Partners suggested one in four Labour voters was considering supporting Reform. The next general election is a long way off though.
A senior party figure said conference was “a building moment”.
“We are acutely aware we are not there,” they added. “We are not yet worthy of government.”
For all the talk of forming the next government, Reform UK is a long way from taking control of councils, let alone the country.
Its operation was haphazard at times ahead of the general election, with candidates disowned over their comments.
If Reform UK is serious about making Farage prime minister, they’ll need a much more robust party machine to match their ambitions.