The many roads out of Clacton for Reform

Millbank Tower is bubbling after Nigel Farage got himself re-elected with a stonking 63% of the vote and crushed the ‘uniparty candidate’, the intergalactic Count Binface, in a sun-soaked by-election last week. 

That’s the line from Reform HQ, anyway, where the party’s reinvigorated leader is said to be chomping at the bit to take on the British political establishment once again. 

Farage will have his first real opportunity to do this when Reform hosts its annual conference on the outskirts of Birmingham at the start of September. 

Barring the Trades Union Congress’ own jamboree, the ‘people’s party’ will kick-off a season of stale sandwiches, cheap suits and aggressive networking as the UK’s top politicos reluctantly de-camp from Westminster and head across the country.

Reform is boasting an election win heading into its flagship event at Marston Green’s National Exhibition Centre, but the pressure is on from inside and outside the party to keep the momentum up and deliver a ‘next steps’ moment. 

Most notably, Reform is yet to field a full Shadow Cabinet, despite Farage promising to have his top spokespeople picked before the year is out. 

The issue reared its head during the debate about Britain’s defence spending, or rather lack of it, at the start of summer. 

The procurement plan had been delayed by Sir Keir Starmer’s administration, with the now ex-Prime Minister losing a Secretary of State and Defence Minister over the matter. 

That has left an almighty headache for new Number 10 incumbent Andy Burnham and his Chancellor John Healey, one of the top ministers who quit Starmer’s government in protest. 

But Reform, despite its pro-defence, pro-borders positioning, hasn’t been able to fully capitalise on the situation. 

During a recent tour of the TV studios, deputy leader Richard Tice even came up against stiff opposition from GB News’ Christopher Hope, who decried Reform’s lack of a defence spokespeople as unserious. Tice, in an attempt to push back, claimed it was a good thing that the Ministry of Defence was part of Farage’s own brief.

But it visibly raised the question – has Reform got a talent problem?

The same can be said for the technology brief. Danny Kruger has fleshed out a high-level vision for how the state can utilise AI, but the former Conservative MP is also in charge of running Reform's plans for government.  

At the same time, Labour has surged in the opinion polls. Thanks to the ‘Burnham Bounce’ the party of government is now ahead of Reform, while the Conservatives have had their own mini-revival under Kemi Badenoch, who has almost solely focused on economic issues. 

Rupert Lowe’s outfit, Restore, is also causing some trouble for Farage. The former Reform MP has offered up peace talks with Reform in a bid to ‘unite the right’, but there is a high risk that such a relationship would turn-off ex-Labour and Tory voters in key marginal seats at the next general election. 

That makes a Reform’s conference a must watch and that’s why SEC Newgate will be in attendance once again. 

Will Farage go full anti-establishment, dismissing the ‘mainstream media’ in process and embracing more radical policies? 

Or, alternatively, will we see a careful balancing act from the Reform leader, appealing to business and the growing constituency of voters who see themselves as hard-working strivers who are increasingly alienated by a political class which doesn’t prioritise their main concerns?

There are many roads out of Clacton, which one will Farage choose?