Reform has four MPs. None of whom have any government experience. As such they are easily dismissed as a projection of the desperate hopes of a broken nation, rather than taken seriously as a party with a coherent policy platform equipped to fix Britain.
But is this fair? I spent two days at their Birmingham conference finding out.
Whilst Birmingham was as much concert as political conference, this was reflective of the fact that the party’s membership is not drawn from the standard pool of students, politics graduates, activists, and aspiring politicians. Rather, it caters to ordinary people who have never been involved in politics but are alarmed by the direction of the country.
This was encapsulated by a middle-aged lady who, when vox-popped by Jeremy Kyle in a throwback to the 2010s, said “I’m an ordinary person, I’ve never been interested in politics, but I can’t stand the state of the country. For the first time, in Reform, I feel that we have hope.” Thunderous applause followed.
I was impressed by the calibre of attendees. Each had their own Reform origin story, an incident when the state and the “uniparty” pushed them too far.
Their prior political laity did not preclude their appetite for policy solutions. The first fringe event I attended was an immigration panel hosted by the Prosperity Institute, my employer. It was packed. I arrived 15 minutes early to find every seat taken. The panel were fiery and astute in their assertion of the need for a project like Operation Restoring Justice.
I left the conference with no doubt about Reform’s political seriousness
Afterwards, I popped along to the Centre for Policy Studies’ event which asked the question; “Why is Britain so badly governed?” Andrea Jenkyns’ answer was well-worn: “the blob”. She recounted how civil servants filtered out CVs when she was a Minister, ensuring only those meeting certain DEI requirements made it to her desk. She claims to have resisted such civil service tricks.
The solution to this scheming, according to Dame Andrea, is for Reform to bring in a top tier of civil servants, committed to Reform’s agenda. This, she claimed, would be a necessary recognition of the reality that the Civil Service cannot be depoliticised. I find it hard to disagree. The legal realities of making this happen are a different matter.
Indeed, many legal realities need to be ironed out within Reform’s current policy trajectory. But there is a recognition of this amongst the party’s upper echelons. They are not blasé about the legal and judicial hurdles facing them. Sitting down with The Spectator, shortly after being crowned Head of Policy, Zia Yusuf emphasised the need to find and utilise the best lawyers and drafters.
Along with legal questions come constitutional ones. The Prosperity Institute’s event “How can Reform succeed in office?” was by far the best attended fringe event of the conference, with thickets of punters standing around the perimeter of the venue space to hear Dr David Starkey and Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg. Both men have clearly given serious thought on how to remove the legacy of Blair and enable a future government to govern, rather than simply be the frontmen for the civil service and judiciary.
The most popular question, especially for Sir Jacob, regarded his possible defection. His answer was a consistent “no.” Nonetheless, the fact that this duo of Tories delivered (to the best of my knowledge) the only fringe event to receive a standing ovation is significant. Yes, Reform is angry at large elements of the Conservative party, and this was reflected in the Q&A. However, they are not blinded by rage and clearly remain happy to take good ideas wherever they can find them.
Turning from law to economics, the core of Reform’s task if they seize power will be reversing Britain’s financial decline. Richard Tice has clearly emerged as Reform’s leading light on economics and was touring the relevant fringe events.
Of most interest to me was the Prosperity Institute’s panel on “Saving local government from ESG bankruptcy.” This is not an intuitively exciting topic, as much as I may want it to be, yet it mustered an attendance of around 250.
Usually ESG is rendered “Environmental, Social, and Governance” but during the event Tice renamed it “Extremely Stupid Garbage.” More substantively, he went on to discuss how Reform have already identified £1bn of annual savings in the pensions of the thirteen councils they control. The proof will of course be in the pudding but the benefit of having outsiders who are willing to challenge groupthink in local and potentially national government is evident.
Speaking at the Growth Commission’s panel, Tice committed to policies that create growth. Whilst broad, he made plain that Reform has a tax cutting agenda and spoke of the need for performance related tax cuts, pointing to their deregulatory agenda as their funding source. He didn’t detail any specific deregulations, hardly a surprise with four years to go until the next scheduled general election. But many of us will be happy to offer suggestions.
I left the conference with no doubt about Reform’s political seriousness. For all the mockery aimed at their embrace of showbiz and the outlandish, they are providing an accurate diagnosis of the country’s decay and are communicating it in a way that engages as much as it entertains, even if that is distasteful to the posturing Left and the old guard of the British Right. They are determined to win a majority and get into government.
Their policy seriousness is another matter. But the signs are highly encouraging. Great people are crowding in around them and their early policies are directionally sound: scrapping Net Zero, repealing the Online Safety Act, and Operation Restoring Justice. Let’s hope they stay on course.
