The big news from the Reform UK party conference is that the party is no longer going to be under the control of Nigel Farage through a limited company, there will be both legal and constitutional changes.
This is part of the move to professionalise and democratise the party, announced only a couple of months back by Farage.
The two-day conference, from the NEC in Birmingham, featured addresses from all the 5 Reform MP’s, namely Farage, Anderson, Tice, McMurdock and Lowe. There was also a key address from Zia Yusuf, the recently appointed chairmen of the party.
All the addresses were professionally delivered, and received with riotous applause – but the audience of a poltiical party is always going to be ultra-receptive. The speeches were entertaining and played to the crowd. However there was nothing new in party manifesto terms, but that wasn’t what this conference was about. Lee Anderson delivered in a true-to-form character, not complete without having a pop at Sadiq Khan and the BBC.
The speeches from Zia Yusuf and Nigel Farage were the most significant of that day. While the other speakers talked about intent of growing the party, tackling both council elections seats, and then the general election, with Farage becoming Prime Minster, Zia and Nigel talked about the start how those things would happen.
The organisation of regional candidates has been poor, with little direction given from central party. That has led to islands of very dedicated supporters not always knowing what they should be doing. As a party they have previously been very London-centric, with a focus on developing the core of the party, rather than engaging consistently across the country. The constitutional, and organisational changes are about coordinating the foot soldiers, giving more credibility to the party, and wider appeal.
Farage had previously setup Reform as a Limited Company with himself as a majority shareholder. Under the new constitution it will be a Limited Liability Company. Not previously doing this had attracted criticism on democracy grounds (although there was a constitution that was agreed with the Electoral Commission to be a political party) – this change means that the party is owned by the members, and run in accordance with the new constitution.
Farage justified keeping the limited company until now on the grounds that there was not time to change it, and to change it too early could have opened the party to infiltration, and be sabotaged.
This is an important move for the party as it creates a democratic structure, run by the members, rather than just a small group of shareholders. This is a key move for connecting with further support, whether that is voters of financial supporters. It many ways it represents a true coming of age of the party.
Zia Yusuf spoke about winning elections. Branches are already being put into place with chair and other key regional roles. This creates new groups in some areas, and in other areas, more formalises what is already in place. However, the party has often attracted support from individuals without experience in running campaigns. Although Zia doesn’t necessarily have experience of campaigns, he undoubtedly has the acumen to connect to those that do. An aspiration to field candidates across council elections will likely be a challenge, simply to find quality candidates. Farage made specific reference to better vetting of candidates and key individuals – the party was forced to pull a number of candidates during the general election as news broke around them.
As a party, they seem to going through a game-changing moment after another, and this yet another, a very significant moment for the party.