Nigel Farage set out this afternoon to show that Reform is still up for the fight – and has learnt lessons from Donald Trump’s disastrous loss of Republican support. At a press conference in London Bridge, the Reform leader introduced the latest recruit to his top table: Angus MacIntyre, a former senior RAF Regiment officer with a 40-year military career.
MacIntyre appears to be a serious addition to the party, and a sign that, despite plateauing in the polls, Reform has not given up on winning power. The new ‘shadow armed forces minister’ pledged to a packed hall that he would end the prosecution of British veterans during Reform’s first 100 days in office. The turnout was in marked contrast with the party’s previous press conference, which struggled to fill seats.
Reform has struggled to win back floating right-wing voters after a series of sleaze allegations
Away from the stage and his supporters, Farage told journalists that Reform had taken note of the message sent by US voters to Trump. He attributed the Republicans’ midterm losses to a failure to keep promises:
[Trump] broke a promise that was no more foreign wars… and the resultant rise in gas and diesel prices, more than anything else, that’s what did him in.
The Clacton MP added that ‘quick tactical strikes’ on Iran from Diego Garcia to ‘slow the nuclear weapons programme’ would be a ‘totally agreeable’ policy. But the conflict went on for too long, he said, ‘and that is so bizarre’.
Farage was also candid that Reform cannot survive as a party focused solely on immigration. The cost of living, he acknowledged, ‘is key’ too.
The party has struggled to win back floating right-wing voters after a series of sleaze allegations. It was dealt another blow when one of its prominent councillors in Portsmouth was charged with rape and sexual assault. Asked about George Madgwick, who was originally arrested in January, Farage said he had only been told about the case yesterday and ‘wasn’t very happy’. (Madgwick denies any wrongdoing.)
Even so, the Reform leader is convinced the pollsters have got it wrong about the party’s declining support, averaging around 20 per cent. ‘If you believe the polls you’ve seen this week, you’re not understanding what’s going on out there,’ he argued. ‘On the raw data, we’re four points higher and the Conservatives are nearly four points lower than the reality.’ He also accused the ‘establishment’ of making a desperate attempt to restore two-party politics, in which the main parties are little more than ‘Tweedledee and Tweedledum’.
Whether the pollsters are right or wrong, Farage still has a steep climb ahead to persuade voters drawn to his policies that Reform is a professional and credible party. Today’s event was a useful reset. MacIntyre brings considerable expertise to a subject too often neglected by MPs across the political spectrum. But until headlines about impropriety within the party finally recede, it is difficult to see Reform making the breakthrough it needs to mount the fierce challenge to Labour that, at its best, it had shown itself capable of delivering against Sir Keir Starmer.
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