Nigel farage

Reform UK’s annual conference wrapped up this weekend – and it was anything but dull. From Andrea Jenkyns belting out her original song ‘I’m an Insomniac’ on stage to Nigel Farage trying to keep a sometimes chaotic movement united, the mood was more rally than conference. Despite the optimism in the room, there were obvious cracks under the surface: mainly, do Reform have enough experience in their ranks for the business of serious government? On Coffee House Shots, Oscar Edmondson is joined by Tim Shipman and James Heale fresh from the conference floor.

At the Reform conference in Birmingham, the Spectator's editor Michael Gove sat down with Reform UK's head of their department of government efficiency Zia Yusuf. They discussed Labour's track record in government, Zia's faith and his tech background, why leader Nigel Farage is his political hero and how AI could change Britain.

Lucy Dunn catches up with Tim Shipman at Reform's party conference, taking place in Birmingham, to get his reaction to Labour's reshuffle. The reshuffle took place following Angela Rayner's resignation from government. Tim argues that it's clear the reshuffle centred around getting Shabana Mahmood into the Home Office, where she can tackle some of the biggest issues for Labour – small boats and asylum hotels. They also round up the goings on at Reform including leader Nigel Farage's speech, who claimed Labour's reshuffle proved an election could be sooner than we think... Produced by Patrick Gibbons and Megan McElroy.

The big news today is of course the bilateral between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska. We should know by around 8 p.m. whether they have successfully negotiated an end to the war in Ukraine – and at what cost – but in the meantime Westminster is abuzz with the news that Nigel Farage is going for the Lords. This morning the Times splashes on a letter from Nigel Farage to the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, in which he demands that Starmer allow him to nominate Reform peers to the House of Lords. It is not a totally unreasonable request either, with the Greens and the DUP represented in the chamber and Farage has gone after Starmer for ‘democratic disparity’.

Does – or did – Nigel Farage have a woman problem? ‘Around me there’s always been a perception of a laddish culture,’ he tells political editor Tim Shipman, for the cover piece of the Spectator this week. In last year’s election, 58 per cent of Reform voters were men. But, Shipman argues, ‘that has begun to change’. According to More in Common, Reform has gained 14% among women, while Labour has lost 12%. ‘Women are ‘more likely than men… to worry that the country is broken.’ Many of Reform’s most recent victories have been by women: Andrea Jenkyns in the mayoral elections, Sarah Pochin to Parliament; plus, their most recent high profile defections include a former Tory Welsh Assembly member and a former Labour London councillor.

Scotland's First Minister John Swinney unveiled his strategy for pursuing a second independence referendum this week, arguing that an SNP majority at next year's Holyrood elections is the only way to guarantee it. This is seen as an attempt to put Scottish independence back on the table as well as combat the rising popularity of Reform. Pollster Mark Diffley of Diffley Partnership joins Lucy Dunn to unpack the SNP's independence strategy. Mark points out that while Reform are consistently outperforming expectations, their support still primarily comes from ex-Conservatives. This, plus the unpopularity of the current UK Labour government, could provide the SNP with an opening to exploit and shore up nationalist support.