At the recent Reform UK conference, the leader Nigel Farage announced changes to the constitution, on the basis that the party was being democratised and professionalised.
At the conference Farage himself proudly said that the party was owned by the members and run by… pausing for the audience to join with the “owned by the members”.
Instead of getting whisked away with the moment, it’s worth looking at how big a change this is, why the party needs to democratise, and if this is sufficient.
Prior to the change to the revision to the constitution there was only 4 members of Reform UK – the 4 shareholders of the business, with Nigel Farage holding a majority share.
This change creates a true member system, so the Limited Liability Company is owned by those that had previously signed-up to the party as a supporter, they can now more accurately be called a member.
Part of the recent changes set Nigel Farage as the Leader of Reform UK, with a board (or a cabinet) that he can put into post, or dismiss, as he sees fit.
For the leader to be voted out, it needs a vote of no-confidence from a minimum of 50% of the members, or from a minimum of 50% of their MP’s, providing there are at least 100 of them.
However, and this is the issue, that is only a request for a vote of no confidence to be voted upon, with the next step being the cabinet being required to vote on it.
So that means any changes to the Leader ultimately sits with the Board that the Leader put in place themselves.
That isn’t a system that gives democracy in who is the Leader, and how key roles are filled within the party. Non of the current board have been voted-in by members (with members as defined in the new constitution)
If you consider the definition of the word democracy, one definition is to be run by the people, or by the people that they have elected – and that is not the case here. There has not been a democratic process around the appointment of the Leader, the board members, and there is not a democratic process to change any of the people in those roles.
As a political party there is all about change, they need to do better than this, and do better than this for the overall benefit of the party.
True democracy is needed by the party if it wants to increase their following “to the next level” there needs to be a focus on party and not any single individual. This isn’t an item knocking Farage – as a party there needs to be a further look at democracy.