On the Reform UK social gathering convention in September, its chief, Nigel Farage, introduced a “historic mission” for his social gathering: to professionalise, to modernise and mobilise a “individuals’s military” to win assist everywhere in the nation.
It got here off the again of unprecedented success for Reform on the common election: no populist proper social gathering within the UK had ever taken as many as its 5 seats in July. They usually had been received regardless of a marketing campaign marred by racist and Islamophobic remarks from Reform members and candidates.
This autumn, then, Farage has got down to construct on that momentum, trying to create a celebration that may win much more seats on the subsequent election. Farage has even claimed he may very well be the subsequent prime minister.
Right this moment in Focus presenter Helen Pidd follows this effort to rework Reform UK, chatting with delegates on the Birmingham convention in September; attending the founding of a constituency department in October in Better Manchester, the place activists hope to unseat a Labour cupboard minister; then travelling on to Clacton, the seat of Farage himself, to learn the way residents are feeling there.
All of the whereas, she asks: is the Reform social gathering genuinely turning itself into one thing new? And the way severely ought to we be taking Nigel Farage?
Assist the Guardian at present theguardian.com/todayinfocuspod
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