Reform talking points

Some thoughts on the Reform UK conference that took place at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham on Friday and Saturday.

Reports prior to the event suggested that 12,000 people were expected to attend, and pictures show the main auditorium packed with thousands of delegates, but neither the NEC nor the main conference hotel - the Hilton Birmingham Metropole, where I was staying - felt uncomfortably crowded.

I did however avoid Friday night's ‘after party’ where the queue for drinks at Resorts World’s ‘Sky Bar’ was reported to be five deep. Instead I chose to spend the evening at a rather wonderful Indian restaurant in Solihull before returning to the bar at the Hilton where I bumped in to several familiar faces.

I didn’t go into the main auditorium inside the NEC either so I can’t comment on what the atmosphere was like in there, but there seems to have been a very positive buzz, albeit slightly manufactured by stunts such as the former Conservative MP Andrea Jenkyns sashaying on to the stage in a sparkly outfit while singing a song she is said to have composed herself. 

Outside, however, in the large exhibition hall, I didn’t recognise what the Guardian called an ‘atmosphere of jubilation’ as the ‘Farage faithful don Union flags’. I actually found it relatively subdued, with delegates queuing patiently at the various food and drink kiosks. There was a similar atmosphere among the hundreds of people waiting to enter the NEC prior to the official opening time of ten o’clock. (I know because I was one of them.)

As for flags, the only Union flags I saw were on a JCB tractor that belonged to one of the commercial sponsors. Eccentric outfits (a familiar sight at Ukip conferences back in the day) were also thin on the ground. Most delegates were dressed casually but conservatively, and although Reform football shirts bearing the name ‘Farage’ and the number ‘10’ (a clever conceit) were reported to be selling fast, I didn’t see many people wearing them.

I may be wrong but I got the impression that for many delegates it was their first party conference of any colour and they had come out of curiosity. In general (and it is a generalisation) they seemed to represent middle England, and I would guess that many were disaffected Conservative voters rather than political activists. 

The comparison with the Labour conferences I have been to was especially stark. At Labour you’ll find yourself standing alongside trades unionists and party workers when queuing for coffee. Reform, however, is a top down political party. Most of the energy, and all of the policies, come from the leadership which means there are fewer arguments amongst the rank and file but disputes at the top go ballistic very quickly. If the leadership is pulling together this lends itself to a fairly serene conference, but I wonder how sustainable it is as Reform gets bigger and more people, including one or two ‘big beasts’, defect from other parties.

Thankfully, the thrusting young lobbyists who strut around both Labour and Conservative conferences, mobile phones glued to their ears, were hardly in evidence, although reports suggested there were more lobbyists than last year. Last year’s conference - also at the NEC - was said to have been more like a rally than a conference. I wasn’t there so again I can’t comment, but this year it did feel like a genuine conference, with a significant number of fringe meetings, albeit a fraction of the number you’ll find at the Conservative and Labour conferences. 

Nevertheless the 2025 fringe programme represented a significant step forward and most of the leading centre right think tanks were represented, together with bodies like the Local Government Association. There was even a business lounge, sponsored by Heathrow.

Fringe event organisers included the TaxPayers Alliance, the Adam Smith Institute, the Prosperity Institute (formerly the Legatum Institute), and Forest. Our event was called Politics and Prohibition: The Fight for Choice and it featured what I considered to be a strong and entertaining panel: Baroness Fox (Academy of Ideas), Joanna Marchong (TaxPayers Alliance), Brian Monteith (former MSP and MEP), and Chris Snowdon (Institute of Economic Affairs).

Located in ‘Endeavour Hall’, an open plan area with a small elevated stage and 250 seats on one side of the exhibition hall, we attracted a reasonable audience so we weren’t embarrassed, which is always a concern. It was clear though that the name ‘Forest’ had confused some people because there was an unmistakable intake of breath when I explained that it stands for Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco.

The purpose of the event was to address the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which is progressing through Parliament, and other tobacco-related issues, and ask what Reform might do to reverse the nanny state. Remarkably this seemed to by-pass one person who sat through the entire 90-minute meeting before asking a question about Muslim children in schools. I hope I wasn’t rude but I thought it best if we didn’t get into that topic so I moved the conversation swiftly on!

Chris talked about creeping prohibition and the gangster-driven tobacco wars in Australia; Joanna discussed the negative effect of high taxation on tobacco and whether a generational ban on the sale of tobacco would make smoking cool among younger people like herself; Brian, meanwhile, explained how the devolved Scottish Parliament had led the race to ban smoking in public places in the UK, and had effectively helped create a bully state.

Claire, who smoked 40 cigarettes a day for 40 years before quitting and switching to disposable vapes (which are now banned!), expressed frustration that with far more important things going on in the world she should have to spend time defending a personal habit like smoking or vaping. She also addressed the war on free speech, which she compared to the war on smoking.

She seemed to have brought her own fan club to the event because everything she said was followed by a round of applause, but it’s easy to see why. She is down-to-earth and speaks with a controlled passion that very few people, politicians especially, can match. But she’s also self-deprecating and funny, unlike most of her peers (no pun intended), and if she has an ego she hides it extremely well. In many ways she’s the same person I met at Auberon Waugh’s Academy Club in Soho 25 years ago, and given everything she’s achieved (including a peerage) that’s quite something. 

An unexpected and slightly unwelcome distraction were the three or four tannoy announcements that were so loud (and distorted) we had to pause our meeting before we could continue. Amid the din, I managed to work out that delegates were being invited to buy a Reform football shirt - £100 if signed in person by Nigel Farage, £40 if not. 

We lost some audience members who sloped off to buy their merchandise (thanks, Nigel!), but it could have been worse. On Friday, in response to Angela Reyner’s resignation as deputy PM and housing minister, the Reform leader brought forward by three hours the first of his two conference speeches in what appeared to be an attempt to force his way on to the lunchtime news. Fair play, it worked (although his reaction inevitably sounded a bit rushed), but it was unfortunate for the groups whose fringe meetings were scheduled for the earlier time. One organiser even told me (probably in jest) he was thinking of asking Reform for a refund.

Nevertheless incidents like that demonstrate the fundamental truth that Farage is the heart and soul of the party and without him Reform would be a shadow of the party it is. It may not be a one-man band but I’m not yet tempted to vote for a party that is so dependent on one man and without him would probably deflate like a punctured balloon.

Also, I’ve never liked politicians who defect from one party to another, especially when in office. I accept that people’s politics change (although they always parrot the line that it’s the party that’s changed, not them), but I hate disloyalty and I can’t think, off the top of my head, of a single politician who has defected for genuine ideological reasons rather than a desire to jump on a bandwagon in the hope or expectation of personal political gain. (And, yes, that includes Churchill, although for obvious reasons he’s the one politician whose defections I’m prepared to overlook!)

The thought, therefore, of voting for a party that has multiple Conservative defectors, including sitting councillors and former MPs like Nadine Dorries, Andrea Jenkyns and Jake Berry, genuinely makes my stomach churn. I’m so glad I wasn’t in the hall when Jenkyns sang and danced on stage, or when Dorries was introduced. I think I would have puked, metaphorically speaking, and I don’t say that lightly.

As for giving a platform on the main stage to Aseem Malhotra, the hugely controversial cardiologist whose opinions have been debunked many times, words fail me. Who is approving such speakers, if not Farage himself?

Likewise Lucy Connolly, who also appeared on the main stage where she was interviewed following her recent release from prison having pleaded guilty to stirring up racial tension. Yes, I know she quickly deleted the relevant tweet and was allegedly given the ‘wrong’ legal advice to plead guilty in the expectation of a more lenient sentence, but allying Reform UK with someone convicted of such an offence is not a good look for a party that hopes to be in government within a few years. At the very least, there are ways to discuss the very serious issues involved, including allegations of a two-tier justice system, without making a political martyr of the person involved.

I imagine it was considerations like that that drove over a dozen people to unsubscribe from the Forest mailing list after we announced we were hosting a fringe event at the Reform conference. I don’t regret it though because, for all its faults, I don’t believe Reform is, in general, a party of extreme views. That, certainly, is not my experience. Like all parties it will have some members whose views are beyond the pale, but you can’t judge a party by a tiny minority.

Furthermore, if Reform is to have a role in the next government, which cannot be discounted, it would be ludicrous for a lobby group like Forest to ignore them, especially if the projected generational tobacco ban is to be repealed. We have to engage, and having witnessed thousands of party members close-up I see no reason not to.

PS. If you’re wondering why there was no representative from Reform on our panel, we did invite Lee Anderson (who attended the Forest boat party last year) but neither he nor his office replied. I subsequently wrote to the person we were told was in charge of allocating Reform MPs to various fringe events, and he didn’t reply either. I appreciate that with only four MPs they were going to be stretched meeting every request, but not even a response? Disappointing.

Update: Reform criticised over doctor's Covid jab claims at conference (BBC News)