Now that Reform UK has established a foothold in Parliament, it is time to embark on the next stage of its plan: “professionalising” the party so that it is ready to contest the 2029 election.
Nigel Farage, speaking at a victory press conference alongside his party’s new candidates due to be sworn in to Parliament next week, said it was time to get to work on winning Labour’s vote and turn the Reform Party into an efficient campaign vehicle.At the central London event attended by supporters and reporters, Farage was repeatedly interrupted by a succession of protesters who showed up one after the other as his predecessor was carried out of the room.
By the time they ran out of people, up to six people had disrupted the proceedings in this way, all the while Farage himself mocked the activists, accusing them of being drunk and overexcited and in danger of making them ill. Laughing, Farage called out to one of the activists: “Don’t worry, there’s still plenty of beer in the pub. Have a lovely day, love!… It’s boring! It’s boring! It’s boring!”
There was also a comical moment when Farage, assuming that all the protesters had left, rhetorically asked the room: “Is there anything left?”, to which another protester rose to his feet and replied: “Actually there is!”
Britain needs reform. pic.twitter.com/pE8KKyNkTd
— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) July 5, 2024
As the excitement died down, Mr Farage introduced the fellow candidates – Richard Tice for Boston and Skegness, Lee Anderson for Ashfield and Rupert Lowe for Great Yarmouth – and shortly after the meeting a fifth candidate, James McMurdoch for South Basildon, won their vote.
Mr Farage said it was clear that the election, called at short notice by former chancellor Rishi Sunak (who lost his job this morning), had achieved its two aims – “to get millions of votes” and “to establish a bridgehead in Parliament”. The challenge now, he said, was to prepare for a challenge to take power in 2029.
Mr Farage recalled that just six weeks ago the Reform Party existed only on paper, with no funding, infrastructure or staff, and while he praised the party for its achievements in the short campaign, he said improvements were needed immediately. The fact that candidates were recruited without sufficient time and funding was a deep embarrassment for the party and angered Mr Farage, but he said it must never happen again.
Mr Farage told attendees: “The few bad people who got in are gone and they will never come back into the organisation – I can guarantee you that, 100 per cent.”
Beachhead wins: Nigel Farage wins his first seat in the UK Parliamenthttps://t.co/uRGmkvFzkL
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 5, 2024
A constant undercurrent in Reformist discussions seen by Breitbart London throughout the election was the importance of building a national network of local groups after the election to maintain momentum and build a grassroots movement – what Nigel Farage called a “people’s army” during his time with UKIP. These conversations frequently touched on next year’s English parliamentary election, an election in which Reformist parties clearly want to run strongly, in order to win seats that will give them a stable presence and resilience across the country. He said on Friday:
… What we are going to do from today is, first and foremost, to professionalise the party, to democratise the party… We have a big job. Literally, we don’t even have a branch organisation across the country. All of us, we have a lot of work to do over the next few months. We are going to focus on what we are doing, we are going to focus on getting the Labour vote, we are going to focus on vetting candidates for the English county elections next year, and then you will see what we are going to do.
I said this would be the first step of a very big journey. This was a five-year plan. A five-year plan. I believe that with the organization, funds and expertise, we can take a serious shot at the 2029 general election. Think of the resources we had just a few weeks ago, the lack of a large chapter organization, and very little funding. What we have accomplished in the space of a few weeks is nothing short of amazing. And I promise you that this is just the beginning of something really very big.
Mr Farage said the majority of his local team would be made up of local councillors and praised those who had moved to his team in Clacton, saying they would be integral to his local work as the city’s new MP. He said he would announce further transfers on Saturday.
Farage made his readiness to build bridges in Parliament clear early on when he said he was ready to work with “anyone” to change the UK’s electoral system to proportional representation. This was clearly an offer to work across divides, and it is no exaggeration to say that Farage’s faction has little else in common with the Liberal Democrats, a party traditionally most interested in electoral reform.
He said:
…The results show something very interesting: with proportional representation we would have around 100 seats. But with single-member constituencies the opposite would be true: Labour would get fewer votes than under Corbyn, but 200 more seats. In my view, single-member constituencies are not fit for purpose, and we will all campaign to change this electoral system.
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— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 5, 2024
