At the Reform UK national conference in Birmingham, during September 2024, the leade, Nigel Farage announced changes to both the party constitution and the legal ownership of party.
The changes were a new party constitution, and a change in legal ownership of the party from a limited company, with a small number of shareholders, to a plc, limited by guarantee.
The announcement was pitched as a key part of the party’s aims of professionalising and democratising the party.
Neither of those changes have come into effect yet.
The Electoral Commission has said:
The Commission is in discussion with Reform UK about updating its constitution, which is the current one.
We have not yet received an updated constitution from the party since its conference in September 2024. By law, a party must submit any changes to its constitution by the deadline of its next annual renewal confirmation.
For Reform, this means the changes must be submitted by 31 January 2025.
Current Reform UK Party Constitution and Legal Ownership
The current constitution is dated as May 2021, and the Electoral Commission has said that this was assessed and considered compliant.
That constitution is based around a limited company, with a small number of shares. Nigel Farage has said that he didn’t change that arrangement prior to the 2024 General Election as there was a risk that the party could have been infiltrated, and taken over.
Within this active constitution, it says that only shareholders of the party can be members, and that all directors and officers of the party must also be members of the party, before they can be appointed.
Reform UK is privately owned business, with documents registered with Companies House
REFORM UK PARTY LIMITED overview – Find and update company information – GOV.UK
These documents show three owners of the company, Nigel Farage, Richard Tice and Mehrtash A’Zami.
That means that only those three individuals can be members of the party, directors or officers of the party.
An extract from the document:
5.1 The Members
5.1.1 The Members of the Party shall be the shareholders in the company, who shall be such person or persons as the Leader shall appoint from time to time.
5.1.2 Upon the resignation or expulsion of any Member, that Member shall transfer their share to such person as the Leader shall nominate.
5.1.3 All directors and officers of the Party must be Members before they can be appointed.
The New Constitution and Legal Ownership
There were changes announced at the September 2024 Reform UK Conference in that there would be a new constitution and the party would move from a Limited Company to a plc, limited by guarantee.
The revised constitution has some changes, but has been criticised as not going far enough to professionalise or democratise.
The document gives far reaching powers of the Party Leader to appoint or remove any key positions. It is also difficult to remove a Party Leader. This creates a risk for being undemocratic in that the view of one person will prevail over others.
There is also limited powers within the constitution to replace a leader, while there is a process, it sets a very high bar for it to be invoked.
The constitution also lacks visibility of how the central party will engage with members, or a clear democratic process in how branches are worked with.
From the revised Constitution:
6.28.A motion of no confidence in the Party Leader may be proposed in two ways
6.28.1. by 50 Members of the Parliamentary Party or 50% of the Members of the Parliamentary Party (whichever is greater), writing to the Chairman and requesting a motion of no confidence. For the avoidance of doubt, clause 6.28.1 is only applicable in the event that the Parliamentary Party consists of more than 100 MPs; or
6.28.2. by 50% of all Members in Good Standing writing to the Chairman requesting a motion of no confidence
A plc limited by guarantee does not have shareholders, but guarantors. There is not a direct route to transfer a limited company to a plc, a new company needs to be created, assets transferred, and the old company dissolved.
For those that have paid £25 as termed membership in the current limited company, it would likely be assumed they would be transferred as members/ guarantors to the newly formed plc.
The legal entity of the company is not normally a matter that involves the Electoral Commission, it is a party matter involving legal advice.
Reform UK have been dismissive over the delays and have said that it is all happening, amongst many other great things within the party.