Reform UK Nigel Farage

Reform have become the right-wing Lib Dems

A lazy framing of British party politics portrays Reform UK playing the equivalent role on the right of British politics that the Green Party does on the left, with each outflanking the Conservatives and Labour, their respective rivals on the centre-right and centre-left. It’s lazy in that it takes far too little account of the way in which the traditional distinction between left and right - the size of the state, and how heavily regulated and taxed an economy is - is no longer the main ideological fracture between the different parties. Increasingly, it’s wrong. Whoever gets into government after the next election will only have one shot The evidence comes from Reform's rapidly emrging vision.

Farage is the pacesetter of British politics

For the past year, Nigel Farage has served as the great pacesetter of British politics. Reform UK has shot to the top of the polls, as Labour and the Tories languish behind. On immigration, the economy and much else, it is his five-man band that sets the tune. It is the inverse of Norman Lamont’s jibe about ‘being in office but not in power’. From his new base near the top of Millbank Tower, Farage enjoys a commanding view of Westminster. The office, an explosion of teal decor, has a large press briefing room, which aides liken to the one in the White House. At a desk adorned with a porcelain Union Jack bulldog, Farage plots his next steps.