Sequins, slogans, and seriousness: Reform’s pivot

In previous years, the Reform Party was easy to laugh off as a travelling circus of disgruntled Brexiteers and novelty candidates. Not anymore. In Birmingham last week, the crowd was less monster raving loony and more golf-club Tory gone rogue: disillusioned long-time Conservative voters rubbing shoulders with the “Reform-curious” who have never troubled a ballot box before.

Journalists descended on the NEC in search of incendiary soundbites and controversial dog whistles to splash. The closest they came was Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire Andrea Jenkyns’ excruciating but ultimately anodyne performance of her original song Insomniac, delivered in a sequin jumpsuit.

A brief flurry of attention followed the cardiologist Aseem Malhotra’s claim that the King’s cancer was caused by the COVID vaccine, but Reform’s leadership acted quickly to distance itself. Make no mistake: this is a party that has professionalised.

Yet what was most striking was not what was said, but what wasn’t. Beyond the familiar refrains of Nigel Farage’s keynote - “stop the boats” and “end woke” - there was little substance. Questions around the NHS, infrastructure, or indeed any of the policy terrain a serious party must occupy went unanswered.

One delegate I spoke with cheerfully predicted a Reform mayor replacing Sadiq Khan in 2028. When pressed on the party’s manifesto for Transport for London, they admitted they “hadn’t really thought about that”, before proffering a lone policy: “scrub the graffiti.” A noble ambition, perhaps, but one that will do little to fix crumbling signalling infrastructure or quell fare inflation.

Reform’s leadership is now calling for a general election by 2027. It is not only improbable, but audaciously hubristic. Still, the polls cannot be ignored. The turquoise tide is rising, and while Reform has mastered the politics of grievance, it has yet to translate that into a governing agenda.

That gap presents a significant opportunity. If Reform continues its upward trajectory, it will soon need to decide what it thinks about business rates, planning reform, skills, and the other bread-and-butter issues that industry cares about.

In Birmingham, Farage announced Zia Yusuf’s appointment as head of policy. For an outfit once content to rail against the establishment without offering alternatives, this is a notable shift. Yusuf’s new role demonstrates Reform has at least recognised the need to move beyond slogans and start the messy business of thinking. Quite what policies will emerge remains to be seen, but the infrastructure for ideas is, at last, being assembled.

For businesses, the message is clear: this is the moment to engage. Those who move early will have the chance to shape Reform’s agenda before it is written down in manifesto ink. Those who don’t may find themselves dealing with a party in Parliament that already has its mind made up.