Farage's political track record is poor. The moment anyone tries to hold him to account, he runs a mile. How long will it be before Reform falls apart, because he and it will fall out?
This is the audio version:
This is the transcript:
How long is it before Reform implodes?
I ask the question for a very straightforward reason, and that is that Nigel Farage has, of course, had three political parties in his career. He started with the United Kingdom Independence Party, which was not founded by him, but which was totally identified with him from very soon after it started, and then he had the Brexit Party, and now he has Reform. And if we look at what happened to UKIP and the Brexit Party, both of them basically imploded.
Farage proved himself absolutely unable to manage a political party.
He is capable of running a personal fiefdom.
He's capable of running what might be called a cult.
But he is not capable of managing a group of people who might actually challenge his leadership of a political party.
And if we look at Reform, his latest so-called party, it is in fact no such thing. It is a private limited company controlled by him and the party chairman, and there is no right of representation for anyone else within the party at all. Even its MPs are not reflected in the ownership of this private company, which runs the political party that they supposedly represent in parliament. And this is deeply problematic and an indication of problems to come for Reform.
How soon will those problems arise? Well, actually, they are already arising.
Remember that in July, 2024, Reform had five MPs elected for the first time to the UK Parliament, but one of them, Robert Lowe, a person for whom I have no great affection, I have to admit, has now defected from the party, or rather been suspended from it because he and Nigel Farage have fallen out. The words that he is using about Farage are pretty blunt, and there's a libel action now in progress about whether or not Farage libelled Lowe when he was suspended from the party.
But this is not the only occasion when this has happened. There's a more recent suspension from the party. A person called Donna Edmunds, who was elected as a Reform councillor in Shropshire only a week or so ago, has now been suspended from the party because what she said after she was elected was that she believed that people had lent their votes to Reform, they may not continue to do so, and that she thought this was a perfectly acceptable form of protest vote, creating political debate in the UK.
Reform did not agree with her. They said that she had undermined the national party and damaged its interests, and as a result, she's been suspended.
She is not happy about that, it's fair to say, and has made various comments which have been reported by the BBC, and basically, her suggestion is that Nigel Farage is running a cult and not a political party.
There is some evidence to support that. The relationship with Robert Lowe is clearly one indication.
Another is the relationship between Farage and Richard Tice, who headed the party for some time, but who was cast aside the moment Farage decided he wanted to get back into Parliament and would stand for the Clacton seat at the last general election. Tice just stood aside and let Farage do what he liked.
And that is the problem of this whole party. It is an organisation where Farage does what he likes. And what we know is that Farage and accountability don't mix.
But what we also know is something else, and that is that Reform is a party based on hate.
I do not think that is a provocative statement to make. I think it's a statement of fact.
It is very clear that Reform does not like migrants.
It does not like people who care, who they call woke, but actually, all they mean by that phrase is people who literally show empathy and compassion for others who are not as well off as them or who are different to them.
It doesn't like civil servants and makes that fact very obvious. Nigel Farage told all the people working in local authorities where Reform has taken control of councils that they should beware for their jobs if they were doing things that Reform did not like.
He doesn't actually like government itself. One of the major policy platforms for Reform in 2024 was that it would cut 5% out of all the costs of government, and it was sure that such savings could be found, although nobody had bothered to do the research to find out.
It doesn't like the arts. It's very obvious from their comments that they think many of the subsidies provided to arts in the UK are unacceptable, and that is completely consistent with the standard far-right line that freedom of thought and expression is something that they do not like.
For the same reason, Farage does not like universities. They are proposing that many university courses be cut from three years to two, not because they think that will improve the quality of the education, but because they think education is not about learning how to think, but it is all about learning specific skills for use in the workplace. And the idea that education might be of merit for itself is alien to Reform.
They don't like those with disabilities. Farage has questioned whether many people who now claim benefits, whether that be because they have mental illness or because they have autism or ADHD or other conditions which mean that they have difficulties in managing life in the way that neurotypical people do are going to be subject to much greater scrutiny if he ever gets near power. And yet those people really do suffer those difficulties, and he basically is therefore saying, if you are not the type of person who I like, I am going to make your life very much more difficult. And this is, again, part of a standard far-right agenda, all of which is always based upon the idea of hating 'other' groups in society, where 'other' means people who are not like us, who are the people who Farage is trying to appeal to.
So, if you run a party based upon this idea of otherness, unsurprisingly, you will fall out with some people in your own party. It is inevitable when division is your primary political strategy.
You will fall out with your councillors, your MPs, your party, the local membership, or whoever else it might be, and that will be particularly the case if you run a party where one person is deemed to be in control of everything, which Farage clearly is within the cult that is Reform. And I use the word cult advisedly because their own members do.
So, how long is it before Reform fails?
My suggestion is that it actually won't be very long at all.
There are already too many people now associated with Reform for it to survive.
We saw that with UKIP, in particular. The moment that it had a lot of MEPs, and the moment it had a lot of councillors, everything began to fall apart. Nigel Farage couldn't manage it. He couldn't handle criticism. He didn't know what to do with it. And he left in a huff and formed Brexit, where the same thing was seen. The Brexit Party fell apart, and now we have Reform to replace that, and my prediction is very clear, very strong, very loud, and very certain, and that is that Reform will not survive for very long, because Farage cannot handle accountability. And yet, accountability is at the very core of the democratic process in the UK.
Reform is a phenomenon. And, let's be clear about it, Farage is a phenomenon. He is a totally singular character within inside British politics in the way that he has managed to create ideas that have had influence, very often without him ever having political power. My suspicion is that Reform will prove to be part of this pattern.
It is so obviously structured in a way where failure is the almost certain outcome of the fact that it is not accountable to its membership, to its elected politicians, or anyone else. That failure is hardwired into it.
Farage cannot succeed because Farage cannot handle success, and Farage cannot handle accountability.
So, for all those who are placing their faith in Reform for the future of the UK, I suggest you think again.
This is not the party that is going to transform British politics.
That is not possible with Nigel Farage.
And the far-right agenda in the UK cannot exist without him either.
It is therefore time for us to look at politics afresh because there is a world post-Farage that is available to us, but it is not one in which either Labour or the Tories are going to play a significant part because they both moved far too far to the right, and it is one in which Reform will not be playing a part either.
We are going to look at a political future where the players might be very different, and Nigel Farage's Day might be done.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
There are links to this blog's glossary in the above post that explain technical terms used in it. Follow them for more explanations.
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Buy me a coffee!
It had to be said and I totally agree.
Maybe this post needs to be more widely distributed somehow to those who voted for them?
But the other side of the coin is that accountability and capacity seems to not exist in the other parties too.
And then we need to look at Reform’s behind the scenes support, their funding etc. Farage has recently boasted about using the relaxed political funding regime to ‘campaign’ more effectively as if he almost pointing out to us that this is what can happen when you allow that to happen. Sometimes it is hard to know whether he is serious or is just a wind up merchant who has no intention of ruling, as though he is just an absurdist having lots of fun. But this is a dangerous game all the same – and with the corrupt and non-functional politics we have now and more importantly the suffering, Reform and it owner are just not on.
If they got into power there might be a huge vacuum in which any Tom, Dick or Harry could grab power through Reform and reek havoc.
All very Trumpian, isn’t it.
Reform voters can’t be paying close attention to the horror showing taking place in the US. If they were, they wouldn’t vote for the party that’s going to destroy their country and explode their lives as they know them to be replaced by instability, economic chaos and, frankly, a dog eat dog, everyone for themselves state where the disabled,
poor and anyone the rich can’t use to further enrich themselves are abandoned.
I take it that private ownership of a political party, with MPs and councillors, is not against electoral rules. I’ve never been aware of any other UK party that was privately owned.
Much to agree with. Fart-rage clearly does not like people stating the bleedin obvious – e.g. Donna Edmunds – although the same could be said for LINO. Which leaves the open question: new politial party? or LINO break-up into one part that wants more gov action wrt public services & a rump this is basically tory?
Forming a new party (which the article implies?) could be very difficult which leaves the others – basically Greens and Lib-dems. The former with weak finance policies, the latter…..?????? Which in turn leaves a reformed LINO? Clive Lewis had a good article in the G:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/10/fixing-water-england-labour-fightback-clive-lewis
Is this the first glimmerings of LINO policy change? However, he fails to understand the problem: “Regulators – supposed sentinels of public interest – have acted more like apologists.” Regulators of monopoly services functionally cannot do what they are supposed to do – due to info asymmetry (the regulators know far less than the companies they are supposed to regulate). & for the avoidance of doubt: I’m not offering an opinion on this – this is the reality wrt the energy sector, water and other sectors. Deform is unable to understand such technicalities, but it knows people are pissed off. One possibility: Fart-rage gets booted out and Deform turns itself into a party rather than a one-man-farce.
The other thing to consider – and I’m sure we all have but I have to say it out loud – is that Reform are just a form of chaos introduced into politics to confuse, disorientate etc., and that is their only purpose.
I agree with most of your points about Farage and Reform. In particular that he leads a cult. I hope you are right that Reform will implode soon. However I’m not convinced that will happen. A look west over the Atlantic shows that a charismatic cult leader can achieve power in a previously constitutional, democratic state. 🙁
We need a left wing alternative to Labour, Tories, and Reform and we need it now. Sadly I see no signs of a such a thing. Still, a lot can happen before the next general election, so perhaps we’ll be lucky that Reform will implode and, somehow, an alternative party will arise. But don’t bet on it.
But USA & UK systems are so different.
In USA the question would be, “how did Trump get the Republican presidential nomination?” Or, “what happened to the GOP? When and how?”
(I haven’t a clue btw. Since Alistair Cooke stopped sending us letters, the USA is a bit of a mystery to me.)
I totally agree with Tim Kent. England needs a new party, to counteract the increasingly right-wing behaviour of all the other major parties.
The fact that 67% of the registered voters in this past election failed to vote at all is something to keep in mind. It’s too easy to blame a lack of turnout on ‘voter apathy.’ There will always be some voter apathy, but I suspect a large proportion of this particular 67% didn’t vote because they had no party they felt comfortable voting for.
My counselling supervisor was a follower of Melanie Klein who had a concept of the paranoid schizoid position. As she explained it a person feels a sharp division between ‘us’ who are good, and ‘others’ who are bad. The fear and thus hatred of others is the paranoia and the split is schizoid. It is black and white thinking which relieves them of the responsibility of thinking too much and justifies prejudicial feeling.
But the real world is not like that and tends to break in and some of ‘us’ gets moved into the ‘other’ category.
We have only to look at the extreme parties -left or right- the purges in Stalin’s Russia, the 1970s National Front split- leaders end up suing each other in court and expelling each other. We see the same in Trump’s administration.
There will always be people like this. The departure of Farage won’t see it end. The departure of Trump won’t see the end of the MAGA mentality.
We have to stick by our values.
Excellent stuff, thanks.
This is Steve Richards (political commentator with his podcast ‘Rock & Roll Politics’ – which is very good and well worth a listen) view, that Farage is not a party manager and to be a leader (among many hats to wear) a vital quality is to be a manager of the party, and that in itself is a key part in a party’s success or failure.
‘PM’ McSweeney (using Starmer as figurehead) has had the opposite affect in managing a party so tight that it fails by suffocation (of cutting out and shunning its progressive left core).
I hope so RM, because his plan seems to be to get power and remove democratic accountability, well what’s left of it.
Jeremy Corbyn makes similar comments on Reform, he sits behind them in HoC and can hear their venom towards each other and everyone else.
Good analysis.
Farage entryism into an electorally weakened Tory Party, perhaps is the real danger to UK plc. Farage could insert himself (via a Reform merger?) into the Tory apparatus al la Trumpian style.
That’s the danger I see in the UK moving towards fascism. Labour under Starman/McSweeney only enables such a symbiotic fusion.
The far right have no answers and the only way they can continue is by finding new enemies. Fortunately for us Britain’s military power is a complete joke these days so war isn’t an option, thus limiting the time available to such parties.
In addition to the Farage cult there is also, apparently, going to be an exodus of Reform councillors. Already one has resigned for ‘personal reasons’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g2qxr79gdo
Several in Durham may have to resign as they are council employees who cannot continue in that eployment and be a local councillor https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cr58nggj612o
It looks as if candidates stood ‘as a protest’ without expecting to be elected. There will be others who can continue as councillors but who will have no interest in the role. Farage does not have the management ability to deal with these issues.
Quite amusing to find the hypothesis being proven so quickly.
Both UKIP and The Bexit Partyy were had single objectives, which they suiccessed in doing, then packed up. UKIP wanted an EU referendum. They won, job dnoe, and packed up. The Brexit Party wanted to “Get Brexit Done”, they won, job done, and packed up. Reform appears to have longer-term plans.
I hope you are right but fear not. Trump is likewise useless at managing, but that hasn’t stopped his broligarchs propelling him to power. Unless the story of incompetence can triumph over the stories of invasion and theft and violence, I suspect the latter will win.
Farage didn’t attend university, and is said to have a chip on his shoulder about so many of his peers doing so and appearing to down on his non-graduate status.
But have they ever been really about being in govt – central or local – taking responsibility? Despite Farage being a serial loser as far as running a political party is concerned, they/he have had massive influence across the political spectrum and devastated the economy and society. All largely thanks to the collusion of the media – including ‘public service broadcasters’.
They have set the political narrative framework – hatred of foreigners , their lies have been taken as truths ‘leaving the EU will give us our country back – saving billions which can be spent on the NHS – while we will continue to trade freely with Europe ‘.
The worry is , that unless Labour Greens and Libdems are prepared to open their minds and think the unthinkable – that ‘there may be money’ and that ‘anything we can do we can afford’ , and start to acknowledge the corruption of big money flooding the system tthe rejection of the whole political process will continue .
People will see that the mainstream does not deliver – and will look for an even more extreme solution than Farage.
Standing on the sidelines, blaming immigrants for all of society’s problems, constantly attacking other parties, twisting the truth, and reassuring the native population that they come first—that “we’ll get our country back”—this kind of rhetoric has a powerful impact. It resonates with voters and helps win elections. That’s populism in action. What we probably need is a strong charismatic just left-wing leader who does the opposite: someone who unites rather than divides, tells the truth rather than distorts it, and offers real solutions rather than scapegoats.
There is a lot to agree with here, but I think it’s still very possible that Reform could win a majority of seats at a general election.
If they have a majority but are unable to put a kings speech together or secure a vote of confidence I don’t think it would be a very comfortable time.
[…] By Richard Murphy, Professor of Accounting Practice at Sheffield University Management School and a director of the Corporate Accountability Network. Originally published at Funding the Future […]
Equally, how long before Labour implodes? Today the headlines in the Guardian were about both
Starmer reaching peak racism (we are becoming “an island of strangers “), and the Government reaching peak Genocide (in the illegal arms court case the Government line is -yes, we are genocide implicated, but the health of the Arms industry is more important.) How long can Labour MPs and members keep sucking this stuff up?
I don’t know.
But we are sure as heck not an island of strangers. Only an idiot could say so.