government reshuffle that followed her resignation<\/a>, which meant I had to be in London on Friday.<\/p>\nWhat is fascinating about this gathering is it illustrates the pace of growth of Reform UK.<\/p>\n
It is a vastly bigger gathering than the party had last year.<\/p>\n
It now feels like a big party conference – but retains the insurgency vibe that the party is seeking to channel.<\/p>\n
That is the unique combination I have never seen before.<\/p>\n
Scaling up while holding onto that newbie energy will be a challenge, they seem to be managing both for now.<\/p>\n
UKIP in its pomp had an insurgency feel about it, but its focus was much narrower and it was never talked of as a potential government.<\/p>\n
Its conferences, at Doncaster Racecourse, Exeter and Torquay among other places, were proudly rather homespun in feel.<\/p>\n
This year, Reform has hired Birmingham’s NEC.<\/p>\n
It is huge and it would be easy to leave a sense of rattling around in a tin in here, but it is busy.<\/p>\n
I recognise one of the big catering trucks in here from one of the other party’s conferences.<\/p>\n
The corporate lounge sponsored by Heathrow Airport is another staple of the big conferences.<\/p>\n
So far, so conventional, if you like \u2013 for a big party.<\/p>\n
But then I spot a queue of folk waiting for Nigel Farage to sign their light blue Reform UK football shirt, bought at the nearby merchandise shop.<\/p>\n
The number 10 and Farage on the back of them all is not exactly subtle about this movement’s ambitions.<\/p>\n
Can you imagine Keir Starmer, Kemi Badenoch, Ed Davey or John Swinney pulling that off?<\/p>\n
Not in a million years.<\/p>\n
In another corner of the main exhibition hall are 10 stands, each representing a region of England or a nation of the UK.<\/p>\n
They are indicative of the growth and professionalising Reform is attempting at lightning speed \u2013 setting up the local branch network and army of volunteers a successful national political party requires.<\/p>\n
It’s the unglamorous side of politics, a long way from the whizzy pyrotechnics of Nigel Farage’s conference speech, but arguably more important.<\/p>\n
A couple from Suffolk stop for a chat.<\/p>\n
They have never been to a party conference before and had never been in a political party until they joined Reform recently.<\/p>\n
Another couple from Glasgow tell a similar story.<\/p>\n
There are plenty of sharp-suited young men about too.<\/p>\n
Two blokes having lunch together call me over. One recently worked for a Labour MP, the other had been a lifelong Conservative voter.<\/p>\n
Those with a former political affiliation are disproportionately disgruntled Conservatives, but not exclusively.<\/p>\n
All around us flutter the party’s banner and the conference’s slogan: “The Next Step.”<\/p>\n
And those three words get to the essence of this: the story of Reform’s momentum has been the stand out political development of the last year.<\/p>\n
But can they keep growing – and, ultimately, can they win the next general election?<\/p>\n
“Can’t stop, won’t stop” is the mantra of the party’s senior figures privately, as their membership numbers tick towards a quarter of a million.<\/p>\n
And as an indicator of their seriousness of purpose, what did Nigel Farage plead for in his closing address from his activists?<\/p>\n
Was he tub thumping and cracking gags?<\/p>\n
Not a bit of it.<\/p>\n
“Discipline” is what he wants.<\/p>\n
Activists who disagree in private, not in public. Activists willing to stand as council candidates.<\/p>\n
Nigel Farage has a focus and sense of purpose I haven’t seen in the best part of two decades of reporting on him.<\/p>\n
He sees an opportunity the like of which he has never seen before.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is the most fascinating party conference I have ever been to. Yes, I am an insufferable nerd:…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":205920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,50,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-205919","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}