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Reform UK
Right-wing political party in the United Kingdom From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Reform UK is a right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. Nigel Farage has been Leader of Reform UK since 2024. It has four members of Parliament (MPs) in the House of Commons, one member of the London Assembly, one member of the Senedd and one Police and crime commissioner. It also controls twelve local councils. Co-founded by Farage and Catherine Blaiklock in 2018 as the Brexit Party, advocating a no-deal Brexit, it won the most seats at the 2019 European Parliament election in the UK, but won no seats at the 2019 general election.[13] The UK withdrew from the European Union (EU) in January 2020. Since 2022, the party has campaigned on a broader platform, pledging to limit immigration, reduce taxation and opposing net-zero emissions. The party is considered to sit on the right-wing of the political spectrum, generally to the right of the Conservatives.[14][15][16][17]
Farage, who previously owned 60 per cent of Reform UK Party Ltd, had been the leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), a right-wing populist and Eurosceptic party, in the first half of the 2010s, and returned to frontline politics as the leader of the Brexit Party after the 2016 EU referendum, which had been called partly in response to UKIP's influence.[18][19][20] The party won 29 seats at the May 2019 European Parliament election, the best result for any single party in the ninth European Parliament. The Brexit Party campaigned for a no-deal Brexit, and there were high-profile defections to it from the Conservative Party.[21]
By May 2020, with Brexit having taken place, the party rebranded itself. A name change from "Brexit Party" to "Reform Party" was proposed.[22][23][24] The COVID-19 pandemic began in the UK in 2020, and the Conservative government imposed a series of national lockdowns. Farage rebranded it as Reform UK around the end of the year and focused on anti-lockdown campaigning.[25][26] Farage stepped down as leader in 2021 and was succeeded by Tice. In 2024, Lee Anderson, who was elected in 2019 as a Conservative MP, defected to Reform UK, becoming its first MP.[27] On 3 June 2024 Tice announced that Farage would become leader once more, with Tice continuing as chairman.[28] It won five seats at the 2024 general election – the first time that Reform UK had MPs elected to the House of Commons.
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History
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Brexit Party
The incorporation of the Brexit Party in November 2018[29] was formally announced on 20 January 2019 by the former UK Independence Party (UKIP) economics spokesperson[30] Catherine Blaiklock, who served as the Brexit Party's initial leader.[31] On 5 February 2019 it was registered with the Electoral Commission to run candidates in English, Scottish, Welsh and European Union elections.[32]
On the day of the announcement, Nigel Farage, who had been an independent MEP since his departure from UKIP in early December 2018, said that the party was Blaiklock's idea but that she had acted with his full support.[31] On 8 February 2019 Farage stated he would stand as a candidate for the party in any potential future European Parliament elections contested in the United Kingdom.[33][34] The MEPs Steven Woolfe and Nathan Gill, also formerly of UKIP, stated that they would also stand for the party,[35][36]
The party's lead aim was for the United Kingdom to leave the EU, and then for Britain to trade internationally on World Trade Organization terms.[37] In April 2019, Farage said that there was "no difference between the Brexit party and UKIP in terms of policy, [but] in terms of personnel, there's a vast difference", criticising UKIP's connections to the far right. He also said that the party aimed to attract support from "across the board", including former UKIP voters and Conservative and Labour voters who had supported Brexit.[38] Later in the month he said that the party would not publish a manifesto until after the European elections had taken place,[39] saying that the party would have a policy platform instead of a manifesto.[40]
In May 2019 Farage described his admiration for how fellow Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy members, Italy's Five Star Movement, had managed to grow from a protest group into the country's largest political party in both houses of the Italian Parliament. He saw the Brexit Party doing the same kind of thing and "running a company, not a political party, hence our model of registered supporters" and building a base using an online platform.[41]
On 11 November 2019 the last day for candidates to register, Farage declared that the Brexit party would not field candidates in the 317 seats in which there was an incumbent Conservative MP. This was done with the support of most of the Brexit party candidates, so as not to split the anti-EU vote.[42]
On 22 November 2019 the Brexit Party set out its proposals for the 2019 UK general election. They covered a wide range of policy areas including taxation, reforming politics, immigration and the environment.[43][44] The party received two percent of the vote in the election, with none of its 273 candidates winning a seat.[45]
Transition into Reform UK
Before the general election on 8 December 2019, Farage announced that, following Brexit, the party would change its name to the "Reform Party", and campaign for changes in the electoral system and structure of the House of Commons.[46][47]
In July 2020 Italexit, a Eurosceptic party inspired by the Brexit Party, was founded in Italy.[48] In November 2020 Farage and Tice announced that they had applied to the Electoral Commission to rename the Brexit Party to 'Reform UK'. They said that the party would campaign on a platform that was opposed to further COVID-19 lockdowns and that it would seek to reform aspects of the British government, including the BBC and the House of Lords.[49][50] The party also gave its support to the Great Barrington Declaration.[51] On 4 January 2021 the party's name change to Reform UK was approved by the Electoral Commission.[52]
In 2021 Reform UK gained representation in the Scottish Parliament when Michelle Ballantyne, then an independent and formerly a Conservative member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), joined the party and was named Reform UK's leader in Holyrood.[53] She lost her and the party's only seat in Scotland in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election,[54][55] and resigned as the party's leader in Scotland in February 2022.[54][55]
Farage stepped down as leader in March 2021, being replaced by the party chairman, Tice.[56] The former North West England MEP David Bull was appointed as deputy leader of the party on 11 March 2021.[57][58] On 26 March 2021 it was announced that the former Brexit Party MEP Nathan Gill had become the Leader of Reform UK Wales.[59] In 2021 Reform UK announced its intention to field a full slate of candidates in the Senedd, Scottish Parliament and London Assembly elections with Tice standing for election in the latter.[60][61][62] The party failed to win any seats above local level in the 2021 elections in May, and lost their deposit in the Hartlepool by-election.[63]
At the 2021 Senedd election the party fielded candidates in every constituency and on the regional lists; it picked up 1.6% of the constituency vote (7th place) and 1.1% of the regional list votes (8th place).[64] At the 2021 Scottish Parliament election no constituency candidates were fielded and the party received only 5,793 list votes across the whole country.[65] At the London Assembly election none of their constituency candidates were elected and the party finished tenth on the London-wide list with 25,009 votes.[66][67]
Prior to the 2024 general election
In October 2022 Reform UK and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) announced an electoral pact.[68][69] Tice declared Reform's intention to stand in 630 constituencies across England, Scotland and Wales with "no ifs, no buts".[70] In December 2022 David White, a Conservative member of Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council, and Richard Langridge, a Conservative member of West Oxfordshire District Council, both defected to Reform UK to stand as prospective parliamentary candidates for the party.[71][72]
The media gave renewed attention to Reform UK in December 2022 during the cost-of-living crisis after Farage announced that it would stand a full slate of candidates at the next general election.[73][74][75] Tice remained leader of the party. After some opinion polls indicated a modest increase in support for Reform UK, The Daily Telegraph described the party as a "threat on the Right" to the Conservative government of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.[76]
On 7 and 8 October 2023, Reform UK held its party conference in London with 1,100 attendees.[77] On 20 October 2023 Tice confirmed that Reform UK would stand in Conservative seats at the 2024 general election,[78] and by January 2024 the party was polling around 10% of the popular vote. It was suggested that Reform UK would play the role of spoiler party for the Conservatives, since it attracted former Conservative voters. The Guardian speculated that votes for the party could lead to more than 30 additional seat losses for the Conservative Party.[79]
In Northern Ireland, in March 2024, the party formed an electoral pact with the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV), in which the two parties would stand mutually agreed candidates there.[80] In May 2024 Alex Wilson became Reform's first London Assembly member, elected via the London-wide voting system.[81] On 3 June 2024 Farage replaced Tice as leader of the party.[82] It gained five MPs in England in the July 2024 general election,[83] and its Northern Irish affiliate TUV gaining one seat with Jim Allister.[84]
Analysis in March 2024 by Matthew Goodwin for the Legatum Institute showed that support for Reform, like UKIP and the Brexit Party before it, was strongest among older voters and those who voted Leave, and relatively even across social classes. By NRS social grades, 36% of likely Reform voters were in AB, 22% in C1, 23% in C2 and 19% in DE.[85]
July – December 2024 (post-general election)
Following the election, on 11 July, the businessman Zia Yusuf replaced Tice as chairman of the party, with Tice, now an MP, replacing Ben Habib as deputy leader.[86][87][88] The party plans to stand at the 2026 Scottish Parliament election,[89] and expects to win significantly in the 2026 Senedd election in Wales, under the new more proportional system.[90] In September 2024 Farage said that he would be surrendering all of his shares in Reform UK. This would mean members would have more control over the party, such as being able to vote on a constitution and motions, and could remove Farage as leader if over 50% of members wrote to Yusuf.[91] In October 2024 Farage called for Conservative councillors to join Reform UK and said "a huge number of them genuinely agree with us and what we stand for".[92]
In November 2024 it was reported that senior members of the party were divided about supporters of the far-right activist Tommy Robinson, with two of party's parliamentary candidates expressing sympathy for some of the supporters of Robinson who took part in August's anti-immigration protests, in the face of objections from Tice and Farage.[93][94] There was also division amongst party MPs on the assisted suicide bill, with Tice, Lee Anderson and Rupert Lowe supporting the bill in its second reading, whilst Farage and James McMurdock opposed it.[95]
In November and December 2024 several high-profile Conservatives quit that party and joined Reform. These included the former MP Andrea Jenkyns,[96], former MP Lucy Allan, Tim Montgomerie (founder of ConservativeHome and adviser to Boris Johnson),[97] Rael Braverman (husband of the former home secretary Suella Braverman),[98] and Nick Candy (the billionaire luxury property developer and former Conservative donor).[99][100]
On 26 December 2024 Reform UK claimed to have overtaken the Conservatives and become the UK's second-largest party, behind Labour, in terms of size.[101] Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservative Party, later claimed on Twitter that Reform's totals were faked. Following this, Reform invited the Financial Times, Sky News, The Spectator and The Daily Telegraph to inspect their website's front and back-end code and the underlying data of the party's numbers. Each media outlet subsequently confirmed the ticker to be accurate.[102][103][104][105] Farage refuted Badenoch's claim, stating that the allegations were "disgraceful" and threatened legal action should Badenoch not apologise.[106]
2025
On 5 January 2025 the American businessman Elon Musk, owner of Twitter, publicly urged Farage to step down as leader of Reform UK, marking a sudden withdrawal of support. Musk had previously supported Farage and been photographed with him, but later tweeted "The Reform Party needs a new leader. Farage doesn't have what it takes". The withdrawal of support came after Farage disagreed with and distanced himself from comments made by Musk supporting Robinson, who was jailed for contempt of court.[107] Two days later Farage said that he aimed to "mend fences" with Musk, whom he referred to as a "heroic figure".[108]
On 10 January 2025 ten Reform councillors, who were a mix of county, town, and parish councillors from Derbyshire simultaneously resigned from the party. They said the party was being run in an "increasingly autocratic manner" since Farage's return as leader. Farage told the BBC that those councillors had been put forward by a "rogue branch" of the party despite that "none of them passed vetting" as one councillors was known to have shared posts made by Robinson. Yusuf stated on Twitter that the leader of the councillors had been suspended from the party since December 2024 for nominating candidates that failed the vetting process and fraudulently nominating candidates with an invalid delegated nominating officer certificate. He went on to say that "As a result of [the latter], several of these 'councillors' are illegitimate and new elections must be held. Reform stands for the highest standards in public life, and those who commit fraud will always be expelled."[109]
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On 3 February 2025 Reform topped a national YouGov poll for the first time.[110] On 20 February 2025, following a September 2024 promise by Farage to hand control of the party to its members and give up his ownership of the party, the party ownership was transferred to Reform 2025 Limited, a company limited by guarantee with Farage and Yusuf as directors. Reform 2025 Limited is a nonprofit organisation with no shareholders and, according to Companies House, "no persons with significant control". Yusuf posted on social media "We are assembling the governing board, in line with the constitution. This was an important step in professionalising the party as we prepare for government."[111] Ben Habib, former deputy leader until being ousted in 2024, welcomed the move.[111]
In March 2025 Jack Aaron, a parliamentary candidate for the party at the 2024 general election, was appointed as head of vetting for the party.[112][113] in that same year Lowe was suspended from the party due to allegations of bullying office staff.
In May 2025 the party received its fifth MP via a by-election in Runcorn and Helsby, with Sarah Pochin elected with a majority of 6.[114] The 2025 United Kingdom local elections were described as "wins" for Reform. The party placed first, winning the most seats, and took control of 10 local authorities and two mayoralties.[115] At 30%, Reform's projected national vote share (PNS) was higher than UKIP's 23% at the 2013 local elections, representing the first set of local elections since PNS began to be calculated in which neither the Conservative nor Labour parties received the highest vote share.[116]
In May 2025 analysis by the Financial Times of data from a More In Common survey showed that the projected Reform vote share had a strong correlation with poor social mobility in a constituency, as measured by the educational and early career achievement of those receiving free school meals, with no correlation for the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, and a weak positive correlation for Labour. Social mobility is lowest in the constituencies with the highest Leave vote in the 2016 EU referendum – 27 of the 30 seats with lowest social mobility voted Leave – and highest in constituencies with the highest foreign-born population.[117]
In May 2025 a far-right influencer, David Clews, and the founder of the far-right organisation Patriotic Alternative, Mark Collett, (both of whom formerly worked for the fascist British National Party), both called on their supporters to "infiltrate" Reform UK and move it politically further right and in support of extremist views.[118] Clews claimed that he has sympathisers in Reform UK who are branch chairs and who have been on Reform UK candidate lists.[118]
On 5 June 2025 Yusuf resigned his position as Chairman of Reform UK, stating on Twitter: "I no longer believe working to get a Reform government elected is a good use of my time, and hereby resign the office."[119] It came hours after Pochin's call for a national ban on the wearing of burqas, which led to media speculation that Yusuf's resignation had been as a result of the question and a statement by Reform that it was not official party policy.[120][121] Yusuf said he had not been informed of Pochin's plans to call for a ban and said it was "dumb" for her to call for a measure which went against Reform policy.[120][122] Yusuf returned to Reform UK 48 hours in a different capacity after resigning, saying his resignation "was a decision born of exhaustion" and was a "mistake".[123] In a subsequent interview with The Sunday Times Yusuf stated that his intervention over the burqa question had been an "error" and that if he were an MP he would "probably" vote in favour of banning the burqa along with other face coverings in public.[124][125] The former deputy leader David Bull was later announced as Yusuf's successor as chairman.[126]
Inspired by Musk's Department of Government Efficiency in US President Donald Trump's administration, a unit with the title Department of Government Efficiency was established by Farage and Yusuf in June 2025 after the party gained control of a number of councils in the 2025 local elections.[127][123] The unit's remit only focused on Kent and Lancashire County Councils with plans to extend to West Northamptonshire Council. The unit's "head", the tech entrepreneur Nathaniel Fried, resigned alongside Yusuf on 6 June 2025, less than a week after starting the role, saying that as Yusuf had appointed him it was "appropriate for me to leave with him".[128][129] On 7 June 2025 Yusuf announced he was returning to working with Reform UK, now as the new leader of the unit.[123][130][131]
In June 2025 Reform also contested the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election and recorded their strongest result to date in an election for the Scottish Parliament by finishing in third place (behind Scottish Labour and the Scottish National Party) with 26.1% of the vote. The election was described by journalists and the political scientist Sir John Curtice as a breakthrough for the party in Scotland.[132][133][134]
At the end of June 2025, two political groups were launched by prominent former Reform UK members, each positioning themselves as an alternative to Reform UK. Advance UK is a creation of Ben Habib, former Brexit Party MEP and deputy leader of Reform UK, while Restore Britain is a creation of Lowe.[135] Both groups were launched on the same day, 30 June.[136] On 5 July 2025 the MP James McMurdock suspended himself from the party as "a precautionary measure" due to a pending investigation into him for previous property tax offences during the COVID-19 pandemic.[137] The party announced the same month that it would replace its existing vetting process with a looser "common-sense vetting" approach, and has suggested that candidates rejected by the previous vetting process re-apply, with re-applications to be treated as priority cases.[138][139]
Also in July 2025, the party announced that it would replace its existing vetting process with a looser "common-sense vetting" approach, and has suggested that candidates rejected by the previous vetting process re-apply, with re-applications to be treated as priority cases.[140][141]
In 2025 it was revealed that former members of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom: Sir Jake Berry, who served as Minister without Portfolio and David Jones, who served as Secretary of State for Wales, had defected to Reform, as had multiple former Conservative MPs including Adam Holloway, Anne Marie Morris, Marco Longhi, Ross Thomson, Aidan Burley and Alan Amos.[142]
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Representation
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House of Commons
Lee Anderson, who was elected as the Conservative Party MP for Ashfield in the 2019 general election, defected to Reform UK in March 2024, giving the party its first MP.[143] He was re-elected in the 2024 general election and joined by Nigel Farage, Richard Tice, Rupert Lowe, and James McMurdock, representing Clacton, Boston and Skegness, Great Yarmouth, and South Basildon and East Thurrock respectively.[144][145]
Rupert Lowe was suspended from the party in March 2025 after criticising Farage's leadership, lowering the party's MPs to four.[146][147] The number increased to five again after Sarah Pochin won the 2025 Runcorn and Helsby by-election.[148] McMurdock stepped down from the party in July 2025, after previously admitting to business misconduct.[149]
European Parliament
In February 2019, nine MEPs, who had left UKIP in opposition to Gerard Batten's leadership, joined the party;[35] by mid-April 2019, the number had increased to 14, all being members of the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) group in the European Parliament.[150]
Only three of these incumbent MEPs − Farage, Gill and Bullock − were selected to stand for the Brexit Party in the 2019 election,[151] which took place on 23 May 2019. Twenty-nine Brexit Party MEPs were elected to the European Parliament, including Tice and the former Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe, while Farage, Nathan Gill and Jonathan Bullock kept their seats.[152] BBC News described the Brexit Party, which gained 31.6% of the vote in the UK, as "the clear winner in the UK's European elections."[153]
The Brexit Party MEPs were not members of a group in the Parliament. The MEP Andrew England Kerr was expelled from the party on 29 September 2019 over a potential conflict of interest. Farage explained that England Kerr made "comments about a business and a product that he has a direct financial investment in and we think that is unacceptable."[154] The MEP Louis Stedman-Bryce resigned on 19 November 2019 in response to "The Brexit Party's recent decision to select a Scottish candidate who has openly posted homophobic views".[155]
London Assembly
Reform UK's Alex Wilson stood as a London-wide candidate for the 2024 London Assembly election, earning Reform UK one seat in the London-wide assembly.[81]
Senedd
On 15 May 2019 four Members originally elected or co-opted for UKIP (Caroline Jones, Mandy Jones, David Rowlands and Mark Reckless) joined the Brexit Party,[156] with Reckless being appointed as leader of their group,[157] which was known as Plaid Brexit in Welsh.[158] In May 2020 Reckless said that Nigel Farage is "consulted over key decisions... but he doesn't micro-manage us here," and that in the 2021 Senedd election it would campaign to scrap the current system of devolution and replace it with a directly elected first minister accountable to Welsh MPs.[159] This policy announcement triggered the departure from the party's group in the Senedd of Caroline Jones, Mandy Jones and David Rowlands. They formed a new members group, the Independent Alliance for Reform, which sought to reform rather than abolish the Senedd.[160][161] The remaining Brexit Party Senedd group member, Mark Reckless, left to join the Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party.[162]
Reform UK contested the 2021 Senedd election on a platform of ending lockdowns, investing in the NHS, giving parents greater control over education, building the M4 relief road, and cutting local government,[163] but did not win any seats, although they got a one percent vote share for regional and constituency lists.[164]
On 22 July 2025 the former Welsh Conservative member of the Senedd Laura Anne Jones defected to the party, becoming their first representative in the Senedd as Reform UK.[165] This decision comes while she is under investigation by the Senedd standards watchdog due to reports of bullying and false expenses claims.[166]
Scottish Parliament
On 11 January 2021 the independent MSP Michelle Ballantyne joined Reform UK. She first sat as a Conservative but left the party in 2020 over opposition to COVID-19 lockdown restrictions,[167] continuing to sit as an independent until January 2021 when she joined the party in Scotland and was appointed leader there.[168] Ballantyne continued to sit with the party until the 2021 Scottish Parliament election in May, when she lost her seat to a candidate from the Scottish Conservatives. She resigned as the party's leader in Scotland in February 2022.[54][55]
Local government
As of March 2024, two-thirds of Reform UK's local councillors were former councillors of the Conservative party who defected over to Reform UK.[169] In October 2024, Farage called on Conservative Party councillors to join Reform UK, saying that he was contacting over a thousand of them and that "a huge number of them genuinely agree with us and what we stand for".[170]
Reform won a by-election in the Marton ward of Blackpool Council on 3 October 2024, with its vote share rising from 9.5% (in the 2023 election) to 38.8%.[171] In October 2024, two Scottish Conservative Party councillors serving on Aberdeenshire Council defected to the party and became Reform UK's first local representatives in Scotland.[172][173] As of 17 March 2025, prior to the local elections of that year, 15 of the 113 Reform councillors had been won through elections, with the remainder defecting from other parties, the majority of which were from the Conservatives.[113] In June 2025, a Scottish Labour councillor from Renfrewshire Council defected to Reform along with a third former Scottish Tory councillor from Aberdeen.[174][175]
Reform polled in first place and won 677 seats in the 2025 United Kingdom local elections. Within six weeks the number of Reform councillors had fallen to 668 due to five suspensions from the party, and four newly appointed councillors stepping down from the role, which led to two by-election losses (one to the Conservatives and the other to the Lib Dems).[176][177][178] Two further by-elections are scheduled for July and August 2025.[179][180] The table below indicates where Reform UK have representation on a local level as of August 2025.
| Local authorities controlled by Reform UK. |
 | This section needs to be updated. (August 2025) |
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Ideology and platform
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Perspective
Reform UK is a right-wing[3][4][5] and anti-immigration political party.[188][189][190] The British politics professor Matthew Goodwin described the party as national populists,[191] while others have described it as far-right,[192][193][194] neoliberal,[195] populist,[196][197] right-wing populist,[198][199][200] right-wing nationalist,[201] and radical right.[202][203][204] Farage said in May 2024 that Reform UK is becoming a "brand new Conservative movement".[205]
In March 2024, the BBC called the party far-right but soon retracted its statement and apologised to Reform UK, writing that describing the party as far-right "fell short of our usual editorial standards".[206] Commenting on the incident, the professor of politics Tim Bale wrote that labelling Reform UK as far-right is unhelpful, and that it "causes too visceral a reaction and at the same time is too broad to be meaningful". Bale noted the importance of distinguishing between the "extreme right" and "populist radical right", and stated that parties described as far right should instead be "more precisely labelled".[207] Reform UK itself rejects the descriptor, and has threatened legal action against media using it.[208]
2019 European Parliament election platform as the Brexit Party
The party's constitution was published by the Electoral Commission as a result of a freedom of information request in May 2019.[209] It described the party as seeking to "promote and encourage those who aspire to improve their personal situation and those who seek to be self-reliant, whilst providing protection for those genuinely in need; favour the ability of individuals to make decisions in respect of themselves; seek to diminish the role of the State; lower the burden of taxation on individuals and businesses."[210]
Social Democratic Party politician Patrick O'Flynn, who was elected as a UKIP MEP under Farage's leadership and supported the Brexit Party in the 2019 European elections, commented on the constitution's description of the party as following classical liberalism and described them as having a Thatcherite ideological core.[211] James Glancy, one of the party's MEPs, has compared the party to the Referendum Party, being a "united and diverse group of people from different political backgrounds".[212]
The party's first non-Brexit-related policy was announced on 4 June 2019: a proposition to transform British Steel into a partly worker-owned company, in what was described as "a hybrid of Conservative and Labour policy".[213] The party also supported cutting Britain's foreign aid budget, scrapping the proposed HS2 project and introducing free WiFi on all British public transport.[214][215] The party also said it would scrap all interest paid on student tuition fees, reimburse graduates for historic interest payments made on their loans,[216] and pledged to abolish inheritance tax.[217]
In July 2019, the Brexit Party signed a cross-party declaration alongside the Liberal Democrats, Green Party of England and Wales, and the Scottish National Party, calling for first-past-the-post voting to be replaced by a proportional system for Westminster elections.[218]
2019 UK general election platform as the Brexit Party
On 22 November 2019, the Brexit Party set out its policy proposals for the 2019 UK general election. Its key policies for the election included:[43][44]
- No extension to the Brexit transition period
- No privatisation of the NHS
- Reducing immigration
- Cutting VAT on domestic fuel
- Banning the UK exporting its waste
- Providing free broadband in deprived regions
- Scrapping the television licence fee
- Abolishing inheritance tax
- Scrapping High Speed 2 (HS2)
- Abolishing interest on student loans
- Changing planning to help house building
- Reforming the Supreme Court
- Reform the voting system to make it more representative
- Abolish the House of Lords
- Making MPs who switch parties subject to recall petitions
- Reform the postal voting system to combat fraud
- Introduce Citizens' Initiatives to allow people to call referendums, subject to a 5 million threshold of registered voter signatures and time limitations on repeat votes
After 2020 as Reform UK
Following the UK's departure from the European Union on 31 January 2020, Farage sought a new right-wing populist project for the party under its new name of Reform UK, opposing further COVID-19 restrictions, paralleling right-wing populist anti-lockdown sentiments in other countries.[219]
At the party conference in October 2021, leader Richard Tice criticised the Conservative Party as a party of "high tax". He said that his party would stand on a low-tax and low-regulation platform. The party supports raising the threshold at which people start paying income tax from £12,500 to £20,000, and exempting the smallest businesses from corporation tax. He has said that energy companies should be owned by the government or British pension funds to stop profits going abroad.[220]
In January 2023, Reform called for an end to foreign ownership of critical national infrastructure such as water, though as part of its plans private firms would continue to supply and distribute the water.[221]
2024 UK general election platform as Reform UK
On 17 June 2024, Reform UK launched their manifesto, Our Contract with You, which Farage presented during an interview. The key policy proposals included:
- Tax cuts, including: raising the minimum threshold of income tax to £20,000, raising the higher rate threshold from £50,271 to £70,000,[222] abolishing stamp duty for properties below £750,000, and abolishing taxes on inheritances below £2 million.[223][224]
- Reducing legal immigration by freezing "non-essential" immigration, and eliminating illegal immigration by ending the settlement of any illegal immigrants, returning migrants who arrive on boats crossing the English Channel back to France. To encourage companies to employ British workers, they would raise employers National Insurance to 20% for foreign workers.[223][224]
- Scrapping and rejecting net zero as "the greatest act of negligence". Reform UK wants to increase drilling for gas and oil, seeing their expansion as growth opportunities.[225] It would also "fast-track" clean nuclear energy and shale gas licences.[226] It pledges to support the environment with tree planting, recycling and less single use plastics.[224][227][228]
- Eradicating waiting lists within two years by giving the NHS an extra £17bn a year and increasing the use of the private sector in the NHS, giving tax breaks to nurses and doctors to increase their number, and other measures including less tax for private healthcare and insurance, offering vouchers for private healthcare and looking to France's insurance-based health model.[224][223][225]
- Increasing the number of police officers by 40,000 in five years, "clamp down on all crime and antisocial behaviour", by instituting zero tolerance policing.[229]
- Introducing a "patriotic curriculum" in schools, such that, for example, where imperialism or slavery is covered, examples are also given of non-European instances. "Transgender ideology" would be banned, no gender questioning, social transitioning or pronoun swapping would be allowed in schools, universities would have to offer two-year courses to reduce student debt.[223][224] Scrap interest on student loans and extend the loan capital repayment periods to 45 years.[230] Encouraging the use of private schools via a 20% tax relief on private schooling.[231]
- Increasing defence spending to 2.5% of GDP in three years, and then to 3% over the following three. 30,000 additional people would be recruited to join the army.[229]
- Focus on new rail and road infrastructure in coastal regions, Wales, the North and the Midlands.[232][233] Public utilities and critical infrastructure would come under 50% public ownership, the other 50% being owned by UK pension funds.[228][229][234]
- Increasing the farming budget to £3bn, focus on small farms, bring young people into farming.[235]
- Stopping EU fleets taking British fishing quotas, ban massive supertrawlers, and other fisheries measures.[236]
- Replacing the existing second chamber, the House of Lords, with a more democratic smaller alternative, having a referendum on the replacement of first-past-the-post voting with a system of proportional representation.[237]
- Eliminating the TV licence fee.[224]
- Leaving the European Convention on Human Rights.[225]
- Immediately cutting the rate of corporation tax from 25% to 20% and then further reduce corporation tax to 15% in the third year of parliament.[238]
- £150 billion per year in spending reductions, including public services and working-age benefits.[238]
Reform UK said that the total cost of its manifesto would be £140 billion but say that they would raise £150 billion. According to Reform UK, this money would be raised from the scrapping of net zero subsidies, the ending of payments of interest on quantitative easing reserves to banks, the halving of foreign aid, cuts to working age benefits and other public spending reductions.[238][226][222] The party said that it would "cut bureaucracy […] without touching frontline services,"[228] while the Institute for Fiscal Studies said that the savings required "would almost certainly require substantial cuts to the quantity or quality of public services."[238]
Analysis has found that Reform UK's tax plans disproportionately benefit high earners.[222] Reform UK wants to raise the higher rate threshold of tax from £50,271 to £70,000, which would result in a tax cut of close to £6,000 for the top 10% of earners and far outweigh any benefit to the lowest earners.[222]
In April 2025, Reform called for the nationalisation of the steel plant in Scunthorpe and government take-over of two electric arc furnaces at Liberty Steel's plant in Rotherham.[239]
Climate change
The party broadly opposes the UK’s legally binding net‑zero commitments, repeatedly pledging to scrap them, and many of its leading members have downplayed or denied climate science consensus.[240] This is a marked change in British politics which up until recently enjoyed cross-party consensus on achieving net zero.[241][242]
In an interview with the BBC in October 2021, then party chairman, Richard Tice criticised the Conservative Party's plans to decarbonise the economy, saying: "It is not net zero – it is literally net stupid." Instead, he suggested that the UK should focus on exploiting reserves of shale gas.[243] Tice repeated the same stance in April 2022 saying that the Conservative Party's climate policy was out of touch with their voters and that Reform wanted to "cut taxes, go for growth, become self-reliant and use our own shale gas."[244]
In an October 2023 Telegraph article, Tice called net zero an "absurdity" and "the greatest act of financial self-harm ever imposed on a country by its leaders – that will achieve nothing but sending our jobs and money overseas, to geopolitical rivals who laugh at our naivete."[245] Their 2024 election manifesto rejected net zero and encouraged the use of fossil fuels.[246]
In May 2024, Tice appeared in an interview with BBC Breakfast and stated that attempts to reverse climate change were futile and the UK should instead focus on adaptation. He stated: "We all care about the environment of the planet – we need to adapt to it. The idea that you can stop the power of the sun or volcanoes is simply ludicrous." This claim and several others Tice made are contrary to scientific consensus.[247]
In June 2024, Pallavi Sethi and Bob Ward of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at London School of Economics accused Reform UK and its leaders Nigel Farage and Richard Tice of promoting misinformation about climate change.[248]
In a survey by YouGov in November 2024, 35% of Reform UK voters said that the climate is changing as a result of human activity, compared to 71% of the British general public.[249] 41% of Reform UK voters said that climate change is NOT [sic] because of human activity, compared to 15% of the British general public.[249]
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Voting history
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Perspective
In October 2024, all Reform UK MPs voted against the Employment Rights Bill. The bill includes banning zero-hours contracts and would give employees the right to sick pay from the first day of employment.[250][251] Another policy within the bill is workers' prevention from harassment, which has been heavily criticised by Farage and other Reform UK politicians, who have referred to it as a "banter ban".[252] The general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Paul Nowak, said on 28 April 2025, "The likes of Reform are defying their supporters by voting against improvements to workers' rights at every stage."[252]
In January 2025, all Reform UK MPs voted for an amendment to the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill regarding a new national inquiry into grooming gangs. The amendment was intended to block the bill and its passing would have halted the bill's progress in Parliament.[253] The Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill aims to improve laws regarding home-schooling and support for children in care, improve school inspections and improve safeguards regarding private education facilities.[254] The amendment to the bill was lost by 364 votes to 111, a majority of 253 against the amendment.[260] Farage stated Reform UK will launch their own independent inquiry and pay for it themselves as the government one was rejected in order to respond to the "overwhelming demand" of the public to know the "full, unvarnished truth". Farage said the attacks were racist against white children by Pakistani rapists. Farage also criticised the Conservatives saying, "Talk is cheap. The Conservatives had 14 years in government to launch an inquiry. The establishment has failed the victims of grooming gangs on every level."[261][262]
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Funding and structure
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In its early days, the Brexit Party officially had three members, who were Farage, Tracey Knowles and Mehrtash A'Zami. The party opted for signing up registered supporters rather than members. The party structure was criticised for not providing the party's over 115,000 paying registered supporters[263] with any voting power to influence party policy;[210] Farage retained a high level of control over decision-making, including hand-picking candidates himself.[210][264] Since 2021, the party has options to become a member, rather than a supporter.[265]
Initially the Reform UK party was a limited company (the Reform UK Party Limited)[266] with fifteen shares. Farage owned 53% of the shares in the company, giving him a controlling majority. The other shareholders were Tice, who holds about a third, and Chief Executive Paul Oakden and Party Treasurer Mehrtash A'Zami who each held less than seven percent.[266] In August 2024 Paul Oakden was removed and Farage took over his shares, giving him 60% ownership.[267] As of 2025[update], ownership of the party was transferred from Farage to a new business legally constituted as Reform 2025 Limited, a company limited by guarantee, replacing the original company which was controlled by Farage as majority shareholder.[268][269] The directors and guarantors of the new company are Farage and Ziauddin Yusuf, who will effectively control the new company.[268][269][270] The business's filing stated that it had no "person with significant control".[268]
Farage has said the party would largely be funded by small donations and that they raised "£750,000 in donations online, all in small sums of less than £500" in their first ten days. The party also accepts large donations.[271] He further said that the party would not be taking money from the key former UKIP funder Arron Banks.[38][272] Farage personally faced questions during the 2019 electoral campaign after Channel 4 News revealed undeclared travel and accommodation benefits provided by Banks before Farage joined the Brexit Party, and on 21 May 2019 the European Parliament formally opened an investigation.[273] In response to the reporting, the Brexit Party banned Channel 4 News from its events.[274]
In 2019, £6.4m was donated to the party by Christopher Harborne,[275] and £200,000 by Jeremy Hosking, a former donor to the Conservative Party.[271] 2023 donations included £200,000 from Terence Mordaunt's company First Corporate Consultants Ltd.[276]
Two days before the 2019 European election, Farage accused the Electoral Commission of "interfering in the electoral process" after the independent watchdog visited the Brexit Party headquarters for "active oversight and regulation" of party funding.[277] Official donations of £500 or more must be given by a "permissible donor", who should either be somebody listed on the British electoral roll or a business registered at Companies House and operating in Britain. When asked if the party took donations in foreign currency, Farage replied: "Absolutely not, we only take sterling – end of conversation." Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell called for "a full and open and transparent, independent inquiry into the funding of Mr Farage".[278] The Electoral Commission reported in July 2019 that following its visit it made recommendations to the party for more robust internal controls on permissible donations, as those in place had not been adequate, and that the party had returned a donation of £1,000 whose source could not be identified as acceptable.[279]
In May 2024, The Guardian said that 80% of the party's funding, in loans and donations, came from Tice. It reported Tice as saying that the Conservatives spend £35 million annually, while Reform spends less than £1.5 million.[280]
Membership
As the Brexit Party, though the party did not have an official membership, reportedly had 115,000 paying supporters in June 2019.[281]
During the week after the 3 June 2024 announcement of Farage's resumption of party leadership, ITV News reported that party membership increased by 50% to 45,000.[282] By September of that year, the party claimed to have 80,000 members,[283] and they hit 100,000 by the end of November.[284] The party launched an online tracker on 23 December 2024 as it approached overtaking the number of Conservative members; it had 120,549 at noon of that day.[285] On 26 December, the party claimed to have surpassed the Conservative party's most recently published total of 131,680, making it the second-largest party by membership.[286] On 10 February, the party hit 200,000 members.[287] During the fallout from the dispute around Rupert Lowe in March, those around Lowe claimed that as many as 7,000 members had resigned in protest, though Reform denied this.[288] Following an incline to over 230,000 members up to May,[289] the membership figures stagnated and dropped slightly since.[290][291]
As of January 2025, has 7,800 members in Wales.[292] In June 2025, the party claimed to have over 15,000 members in London[293] and 11,000 members in Scotland.[294] In Scotland, the party claims to be the third-biggest, beating the Scottish Conservative total of 6,941 in January 2025.[295]
According to research by Tim Bale and the Party Members Project done just after the 2024 election, Reform members are similar to those of other parties.[296] The average age is 61 with very few between 18–24 and almost half of it's members are over 65.[296] Members are predominantly from the middle class, and has a substantial share of its membership in the Midlands and North.[296] Nearly all voted leave, and 90% of them consider themselves as being some level of right-wing.[296]
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Leadership
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Leaders
Reform UK has had three leaders. Catherine Blaiklock was its first leader, in early 2019.[297] Nigel Farage was leader from March 2019 until March 2021, when he resigned and Richard Tice took on the role.[298] On 3 June 2024 it was announced that Tice had invited Farage to return as leader, an offer Farage accepted.
Timeline
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Election results
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2019 European Parliament election as the Brexit Party
The Brexit Party stood candidates in Great Britain at the 2019 European Parliament election, including the former Conservative Party Minister of State, Ann Widdecombe,[300] the journalist, Annunziata Rees-Mogg (a former Conservative general election candidate and the sister of the Conservative MP and Brexit advocate, Jacob Rees-Mogg), the Leave Means Leave co-founder, Richard Tice,[272] the writers, Claire Fox and James Heartfield (both once part of the Revolutionary Communist Party and later writers for Spiked),[301][302] Stuart Waiton (a fellow Spiked contributor)[303][304] James Glancy, a former member of the Royal Marines and the Special Boat Service who was awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross,[305] Martin Daubney, a journalist and commentator,[306] David Bull, author and television presenter,[307][308] Brian Monteith, a former Conservative Party MSP, Rupert Lowe, a businessman[309] and retired Rear Admiral Roger Lane-Nott.[310] John Longworth, the former director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce, announced he would be standing as a candidate for the party on 15 April 2019.[311] The party was not registered in Northern Ireland and did not field candidates there.[312]
A survey of 781 Conservative Party councillors found that 40% planned to vote for the Brexit Party.[313] On 17 April 2019, the former Labour and Respect Party MP George Galloway announced his support for the Brexit Party "for one-time only" in the 2019 European Parliament election.[314] On 24 April, the political columnist Tim Montgomerie announced that he would vote for the party and endorsed Widdecombe's candidature,[315] and the Conservative MP Lucy Allan described the candidates of the party as "fantastic".[316] On 2 May, one of the party's candidates for the North West constituency, Sally Bate, resigned from the party in response to previous comments made by Claire Fox, the lead candidate in the constituency, on the Warrington bombings.[317]
In May 2019, several polls forecast the party polling first for the European elections,[318] though earlier polls had suggested it would come third to Labour and the Conservatives.[319] The party held 14 seats, acquired through defections, going into the elections, and saw an increase of 15. It won five more seats than UKIP, had at the previous election, under Farage's leadership.
Results
The party won 29 seats in the election, becoming the biggest single party in the 9th European Parliament. The CDU/CSU Union also won 29 seats in Germany, but it was an alliance and not a party. Three of the 29 resigned the whip in December 2019 to support the Conservative Party at the 2019 general election, while a fourth, John Longworth, was expelled for "repeatedly undermining" the party's election strategy.[320]
The 29 MEPs elected were as follows:
2019 general election
On April 19, Farage said that the party intended to stand candidates at the 2019 general election,[321] but would not stand candidates against the 28 Eurosceptic Conservative MPs who opposed the Brexit withdrawal agreement.[322] In the Peterborough by-election in June, the Brexit Party came second with 28% of the vote, 7% ahead of the Conservatives and 2% behind Labour.
Following Boris Johnson's election as Prime Minister, Farage unveiled the names of 635 general election candidates for the Brexit Party, including himself.[323] On 8 September 2019, Farage wrote an article in the Sunday Telegraph and the party took out advertisements in Sunday newspapers offering an electoral pact with the Conservative Party in the forthcoming general election, whereby the Brexit Party would not be opposed by the Conservatives in traditional Labour Party seats in the north of England, the Midlands and Wales, and the Brexit Party would not contest seats in which they could split the Leave vote. Farage wrote that Boris Johnson should ask himself "does he want to sign a non-aggression pact with me and return to Downing Street?"[324]
Farage's proposition was rejected by Johnson.[325] On 11 November, Farage said that his party would not stand in any of the 317 seats won by the Conservatives at the last election. Conservative Party chairman James Cleverly welcomed this, although he stated that the parties had not been in contact.[326] Newsnight reported that conversations between members of the Brexit Party and the pro-Brexit Conservative group, the European Research Group (ERG) had led to this decision.[327]
The Brexit Party is reported to have requested that Boris Johnson publicly state he would not extend the Brexit transition period beyond the planned date of 31 December 2020 and that he wished for a Canada-style free-trade agreement with the EU. Johnson did make a statement covering these two issues, something which Farage referenced as key when announcing he was standing down some candidates, but both the Brexit Party and the Conservatives denied that any deal was done between them.[327][328][329] The decision to not run in those seats met with criticism by some Brexit Party supporters and candidates, and some candidates who had been selected to run for Conservative seats opted to run as independent candidates on a Pro-Brexit platform.[330]
Results
The party failed to win any seats in the general election.[45] Its best second places were in Barnsley Central, where Victoria Felton won 30.4% of the vote,[331] and Barnsley East, where Jim Ferguson won 29.2%.[332] High third places were in Hartlepool, where Richard Tice won 25.8% of the vote,[333] and Hull West and Hessle, where Michelle Dewberry won 18%.[333]
2024 general election
On 22 May 2024, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the date of the general election as 4 July. The next day, leader Richard Tice launched the Reform UK campaign, promising to field candidates in 630 seats including himself in Boston and Skegness.[334] He said that the party wanted to make this the "immigration election".[70] Nigel Farage initially ruled out standing, saying that it was "not the right time" but promised to "do my bit to help".[82] In the first week of the campaign, Reform UK's average predicted vote in opinion polls rose from 11% to 13%, although many commentators predicted their vote share would be squeezed[335] and the Conservatives announced policies targeted at Reform voters, such as national service.[336]
On 3 June, Farage became the leader of Reform UK. Following this, opinion pollsters reported an increase in support for the party, in two cases polling within 2% of the Conservative Party.[337] BBC political analyst Peter Barnes commented on 9 June that the change in leadership "has clearly had a positive impact on the party's performance in the polls," and that this "has come at the expense of the Conservatives."[338] A poll of 1,000 viewers conducted after the BBC's seven-party debate held on 7 June found Farage to be the winner with 25% support, his closest rival being Labour Party deputy leader Angela Rayner, on 19%. The debate majored on the Normandy landings, war veterans, immigration and the National Health Service (NHS).[339]
Farage said that his aim was to make Reform the Official Opposition party in Parliament.[340] Reform would be standing in 609 out of 650 constituencies (all in Great Britain).[341] As part of an electoral pact with the Social Democratic Party, the two parties stood aside from each other in six constituencies and over a dozen candidates stood under a joint Reform-SDP banner.[342]
On 10 June, the Reform UK candidate for Bexhill and Battle, Ian Gribbin, was reported as having said in 2022 that: "Britain would be in a far better state today had we taken Hitler up on his offer of neutrality." Following these reports, Gribbin stated that he apologised without reservation for the comment and any upset caused.[343] A party spokesman defended Gribbin by saying that "his historical perspective of what the UK could have done in the 30s was shared by the vast majority of the British establishment including the BBC of its day, and is probably true," that the comments made by Gribbin were not endorsements of the stances and that the party would continue to support him.[344][345] The Times reported on 13 June that 41 of the Reform UK candidates for the 2024 general election were Facebook friends with the British neo-fascist leader Gary Raikes.[346]
After a number of revelations about the party's prospective parliamentary candidates,[347] Farage said on 18 June that the party had hired a vetting company, but had been "stitched up" by them. The company, vetting.com, responded that there had not been sufficient time to complete their work, the election having been called earlier than expected.[347]
In the campaign, the party used the slogan "Britain Needs Reform".[348] Its party election video, broadcast nationally on 13 June, showed silently and continuously for 4 minutes and 40 seconds the six words "Britain is Broken. Britain Needs Reform."[349] On 13 June, YouGov polling put Reform at 19% and the Conservatives 18%. Farage declared "We are now the opposition to Labour."[350]
On 15 June, the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg said that "the most optimistic Reform politicians can't name more than five or six seats where they reckon they could win."[351] On the same day, opinion pollsters Survation published the results of a survey of 42,269 voters employing multilevel regression with poststratification (MRP) which predicted that Reform would win seven seats and YouGov's MRP survey predicted five seat wins.[352]
On 20 June, the BBC reported that while Farage has been criticised by some Muslim organisations for saying that a growing number of young Muslims do not subscribe to British values, Muslim entrepreneur Zia Yusuf had just given the party a donation amounting to hundreds of thousands of pounds and said that the country has lost control of its borders. He said that it was his "patriotic duty" to fund Farage and Reform UK.[353]
Farage was criticised during the campaign for suggesting that the West had provoked Russia's invasion of Ukraine by expanding the European Union and NATO military alliance eastwards. Farage also said that "of course" the war was the fault of Vladimir Putin.[354]
On 27 June, Channel 4 News revealed alleged homophobic, racist and Islamophobic comments made by some party campaigners in Clacton,[355][356] including an individual calling Rishi Sunak a "Paki" (a racist slur against those of South Asian heritage in the UK),[357] and suggesting the army should shoot at small boats bringing illegal migrants to the UK,[356] and another campaigner calling the LGBT flag "degenerate". Sunak responded that hearing the racist slur against him "hurts and it makes me angry".[358][359][360] Farage described the anti-gay comments as "vulgar, drunk and wrong"[361] and condemned the other individual's racist comments, before suggesting that the programme was a "set up" by Channel 4, as the individual who made the racist slur against Sunak, Andrew Parker, was an actor and that it alluded to foul play.[358] The party later said it had made a complaint against Channel 4 for "electoral interference" over the broadcast,[362] although reports on 28 June suggested the Electoral Commission had not received such a complaint from Reform.[363] Channel 4 commented: "We met Mr Parker for the first time at Reform UK party headquarters, where he was a Reform party canvasser. We did not pay the Reform UK canvasser or anyone else in this report. Mr Parker was not known to Channel 4 News and was filmed covertly via the undercover operation."[364] Following the report, Reform UK dropped its support for three election candidates because of past racist comments,[363] and on 30 June, one candidate defected to the Conservatives over a perceived lack of leadership from Reform on the issue.[365][366]
Less than 20% of Reform UK candidates in the 2024 general election were women and the five Reform UK candidates who were elected were all men and had a median age of 60 at the time of the election.[367]
Results
At the election, the party won five seats (Ashfield, Clacton, Boston and Skegness, Great Yarmouth, and South Basildon and East Thurrock) and came second in a further 98.[368] Reform UK's presence split the right-wing vote, allowing Labour to win seats on small margins including South West Norfolk, Poole, South Dorset and Rother Valley. The party won 14.3 per cent of the vote in total.[83] It became the third-largest party by popular vote, gaining 4,117,610 votes.[369]
Local government
The party first stood at local government level in two by-elections in Gloucester on 25 July 2019.[370] They did not win either.[371]
A councillor elected to Rochdale defected to the party in July 2019 from Labour, making for the first councillor;[372][373] shortly after a Liberal Democrat councillor there also defected.[374] All 12 of Rotherham's then UKIP councillors defected to the Brexit Party in July 2019, as did all 5 of Derby's UKIP councillors.[375][376] On 13 September 2019, ten independent councillors on Hartlepool Borough Council defected to the Brexit Party. They then formed a pact with the three Conservatives to hold 13 of the 33 seats.[377] In September 2019, a Conservative councillor for Surrey (county) and Elmbridge (borough) defected to the party, after his party decided he would not be reselected.[378]
The 13 councillors of the Hartlepool council group left the party in 2020.[379] The Rotherham group left to form the Rotherham Democratic Party.[380][381] The party won two seats in the 2021 United Kingdom local elections, both in Derby, one a hold from a previous defection and the other a gain. These were the first council seats won at election by the party, as all their previous ones had been via defections.[382][383] This left them with eight councillors in total; six in Derby and two more from defections, one in Redbridge from the Conservatives, and one in Swale from UKIP, both in April 2021.[384][385] Councillors in the Derby City group are members of an affiliate party named "Reform Derby", in alignment with Reform UK.[386][387]
In December 2021, days before the North Shropshire by-election, local councillor and Deputy Mayor of Market Drayton Town Council, Mark Whittle, defected to the party from the Conservatives.[388] It was reported that all of Reform UK's candidates in the 2022 United Kingdom local elections "will campaign on the benefits of fracking and restarting exploration in the North Sea".[389] Three of the eight council seats held by the party were up for re-election in 2022, all of which had arisen from defections. Both Derby seats were held, but a seat in Redbridge was lost. No new seats were gained.[390]
In December 2022, two former Conservative councillors – one in Barnsley and the other in West Oxfordshire – defected to the party.[391] Another Conservative councillor, Barry Gwilt, of the Fazeley ward of Lichfield District Council, defected to Reform UK in January 2023.[392] In the 2023 United Kingdom local elections, Reform UK won six seats out of the 8,519 up for election[393] and averaged 6% of the vote in the wards where it stood.[394] The six seats won were all in the City of Derby, whose new council proceeded to elect Reform Derby leader Alan Graves to the position of Mayor for 2023/24.[395]
In March 2024, East Riding of Yorkshire councillor Maria Bowtell defected from the Conservatives and joined the party.[396] In the 2024 English local elections, Reform UK took approximately 11% of the vote where it stood candidates,[397] and won two seats on Havant Borough Council[398] and one on the London Assembly.[81] Richard Tice said that his party was becoming the real opposition to Labour.[399] On 18 June, four Conservatives from the Tendring District Council defected to Reform, with Jeff Bray becoming leader of the council group.[400]
Since the 2024 general election, Reform UK has won a number of council by-elections. Thirty-two councils now have at least one Reform UK councillor,[401] with the party winning by-elections in Blackpool,[402] Dartford,[403] East Riding of Yorkshire,[404] Kent,[405] St Helens,[406] Swale,[407] Wolverhampton,[408] and Wyre.[409] On 10 January 2025, ten Reform councillors resigned from the party, saying that the party is being run in an "increasingly autocratic manner" since Farage's return as the party's leader.[109] On 14 February 2025, Stuart Keyte became the first elected councillor for Reform UK in Wales, joining three other Reform councillors at Torfaen Council, who had defected to the party after previously sitting as independents.[410]
In March 2025, Reform UK gained defecting councillors in Scotland. John Gray from Renfrewshire Council and Ross Lambie from South Lanarkshire Council both defected from the Conservative Party.[411] On 11 March 2025, Falkirk councillor Claire Mackie-Brown also joined Reform UK from the Conservative Party.[412] Farage welcomed 29 defecting councillors at a press conference in Westminster. Of Reform UK's 113 council seats, 98 have come about via defections from politicians that were elected for another party – the majority, 66 from the Conservative Party – while 15 have been won through elections.[113] Amid this the Councillor Maria Bowtell left the party.[413]
At the 2025 United Kingdom local elections, Reform stood 1,706 candidates[414] representing 97.5% of all wards up for election. It went on to win 677 seats and a majority of seats on 10 councils. The party also won 2 of the 6 mayoral elections taking place, Greater Lincolnshire and Hull and East Yorkshire. A projected national vote share collated by the BBC put Reform on 30% of the vote slightly ahead of its position in opinion polls conducted immediately prior to the local elections.[415] After four of Reform's new councillors stepped down, the party were unable to retain two of those seats in the subsequent by-elections, losing one to the Conservatives and the other to the Liberal Democrats.[178][177]The two remaining by-elections are scheduled to happen in July and August 2025.[179][180]
In August 2025, Reform gained their first Police and crime commissioner after Rupert Matthews, the Leicestershire Police and Crime Commissioner, defected from the Conservatives.[416]
Data has shown that most of Reform UK's representation comes from those who have defected from the Conservative Party.[367]
Senedd elections
Scottish Parliament elections
London Assembly elections
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External links
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