Labour’s panic over Reform deepened last night amid fears that big businesses are following voters and increasingly supporting Nigel Farage’s party.
One Cabinet minister confessed to The Mail on Sunday that many leading companies will now attend Reform’s high-profile autumn conference in Birmingham.
It came as Mr Farage insisted yesterday that his own health was fine, dismissing talk that his lifestyle and relentless schedule were taking their toll, and blaming suggestions to the contrary on rumours spread by Labour and Tory rivals ‘because it’s the last card they’ve got’.
He joked that he doubted the British Medical Association ‘would hold me up as a pin-up boy’ but declared: ‘I’m feeling good.’ However, he later admitted that he was trying to ‘moderate with age’.
All the parties are currently gearing up for the autumn conference season, with Labour’s gathering in Liverpool expected to dwarf the Conservative event in Manchester.
Traditionally, conference attendance by major corporate leaders tends to be highest at whichever party is in power, with the official Opposition party reduced to the second-best showing.
But one leading Labour minister privately forecast that Reform was likely to upend that tradition this year, saying all the major businesses they had spoken to had said they would buy a stand at the Reform event in Birmingham.
The minister said: ‘They say they have to.
Labour’s panic over Reform deepened last night amid fears that big businesses are following voters and increasingly supporting Nigel Farage’s party, with leading companies set to attend Reform’s autumn conference in Birmingham, a cabinet minister confessed to The Mail on Sunday
It came as Mr Farage insisted yesterday that his own health was fine, dismissing talk that his lifestyle and relentless schedule were taking their toll, and blaming suggestions to the contrary on rumours spread by Labour and Tory rivals ‘because it’s the last card they’ve got’
The forecasts come after Sir Keir Starmer made plain that even though Reform had only four MPs, Mr Farage’s party – which is leading in recent polls – was Labour’s main enemy at the next General Election
‘They said that it’s the polling numbers – it’s making everyone feel they can’t miss it this year.’
That has stoked Labour fears over the momentum Mr Farage’s party is likely to get from the conference season.
One Labour source said: ‘Business leaders want a presence at Reform partly because they are an unknown – they want their teams to get more detail on policy.’
The forecasts come after Sir Keir Starmer made plain that even though Reform had only four MPs, Mr Farage’s party – which is leading in recent polls – was Labour’s main enemy at the next General Election.
Last night there were claims that Labour in the North West was seeking to hire a campaign worker to help save Cabinet ministers Jonathan Reynolds and Angela Rayner from losing their Commons’ seats to Reform at the next election.
