“I “I want you to take a moment to imagine the day when, just a few years from now, Prime Minister Nigel Farage will triumphantly arrive at No 10 Downing Street, place his briefcase on the desk and take a seat,” said Zia Yusuf , chairman of Reform UK. » tells a captivated audience of party members. “Change is coming. We will turn this country around and return the UK to its rightful position as one of the greatest countries in the world.
The speech was greeted with enthusiastic applause and a standing ovation at the East of England Reform Conference, held in the rural constituency of Kemi Badenoch in north-west Essex on Saturday .
Around 1,000 people gathered under the unusual name ‘summer marquee’ at Chelmsford City Racecourse for the event, which is one of four celebratory gatherings held across England in the space fifteen days.
The mood is jubilant, with a series of speakers hailing the Reform Party’s favorable opinion polls and what they see as political victories following an ongoing row with Conservative leader Badenoch over his party numbers. members.
Momentum is the word of the day. “Reform has all the momentum of British politics, but make no mistake: we still have a lot of work to do,” Yusuf told the crowd, before calling on members to volunteer as candidates and canvassers in local elections.
Reform no longer aims simply to disrupt British politics: it aims to organize. Branches are developing across the country and the electoral machine is being put in place slowly but surely. Lee Anderson, one of five Reform MPs, used his speech as a call to action, having arrived on stage as the loudspeaker system blared the football chant “let’s go”.
“We have a mountain to climb, but we have all the momentum we need,” he told members. “We have local elections this year, and Scottish and Welsh elections next year, and we must take the fight to every ballot box in our great country.”
Although the public is clearly ready to fight, not everyone shares the leaders’ optimism. Nick, 67, believes British voters are looking for “something different”, but adds: “The electoral system could disappoint us but I think the will is there. »
Mark, 61, another Reformer who wears a Union Jack T-shirt, was a member of the Reform Party’s previous incarnation, the Brexit party, and is familiar with its struggle to convert support into electoral seats. He says: “We have momentum at the moment, but there is no doubt that when we become more of a threat, the knives will be drawn politically and in the mainstream media. »
Other Reform MPs worry that the party’s membership is currently too small to compete with the broad supporter bases of the major parties. The vast majority of participants are men over 50, and almost all are white.
Maria, 65, recognizes that “the demographic here is very mature”. She fears Reform supporters of her generation will return to the major parties or vote tactically in the next general election.
“They are sheep, they are not independent thinkers,” she adds. “It’s time for change, but we need to attract more people. »
Asked if she can imagine Farage as the next prime minister, Maria says the party is “not ready” for power now, but perhaps will be by 2029, adding: ” If there were elections tomorrow, there would be too many sheep (people of sheep) but In a few years, I think that the Reformed will be much more ready and that if the money comes from Elon (Musk), that will be of great help.”
Rumor that the tech billionaire could inject significant funds is a frequent topic of discussion at conferences, despite Farage’s public dismissal on Friday of Elon Musk’s vocal support for far-right activist Tommy Robinson. Robinson himself is not mentioned in any of the speeches, although Anderson is keen to say that Reform Party supporters are “true British patriots, but they are not far-right”.
Standing at the bar, Mark says Robinson is “not someone we want to associate with the party,” adding: “With Musk, why can’t we have a disagreement?”
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Nick agrees, saying Farage and Musk should “agree to disagree”, adding: “But it seems unusual that Trump and Musk are so interested in British politics.” »
Several Reform speakers are hailing Trump’s election victory as an example of what the party could achieve in the UK, and some are hailing Musk as a “hero” and a visionary. However, most of the attention was closer to home. Immigration, small boats, crime, the economy and opposition to green energy policies were central topics.
Yusuf announced that, if in power, the Reform Party would launch an independent inquiry into the grooming gangs, with Farage later calling for a “full and open national inquiry” so that everyone in the country “knows the truth “.
Badenoch called for a national inquiry on Friday, after a series of messages from Musk on Phillips.
In fact, there were independent investigations into the Rotherham scandal in 2014 – the Jay Report – and into Telford, which concluded in 2022. As Director of Public Prosecutions in 2013, Starmer initiated legal action against Rochdale gangs and initiated reforms within the Crown Prosecution Service. .
Farage linked sexual exploitation to “mass immigration with open doors without assimilation”, which he described as a “disaster”, to widespread applause.
His speech, which closed the conference, was the main event. He arrived walking down the aisle of what is, on other occasions, a wedding venue, as delegates hounded him to shake his hand and take selfies.
In his element on stage, sometimes interacting directly with the crowd and others looking into the camera to address people watching the live broadcast, Farage jumped between jokes at Labor’s expense and angry tirades. “We can win the next general election,” he insisted. “This is just the very beginning.”
theguardian