The insurgent right-wing force is in a race against time to find and vet candidates before any general election.
LONDON — Nigel Farage has always faced a battle to get Reform UK ready for the next general election. Labour’s nascent recovery under Andy Burnham is only increasing the urgency.
The insurgent right-wing force has only about 100 star candidates considered ready to run as MPs — bar a final vet, two people aware of the process told POLITICO. That’s a long way from the 650 needed to contest every Westminster seat.
A nationwide Reform UK roadshow to pluck out more potential candidates begins its second lap of the country next week, with the pressure on to get hundreds more quality representatives before Burnham pulls the election trigger.
Recruiters are also searching for hundreds of prospective peers, which the party believes it might need to prevent the unelected House of Lords from blocking its program for government if Farage does enter Downing Street.
What was always going to be a rush to get battle-ready is taking place under greater urgency amid speculation Andy Burnham, the new Labour prime minister, could trigger an early election, though one is not due until 2029.
Ready or not, here we come
It was late in June that Richard Tice stood on Westminster’s College Green confidently calling for a general election as it became clear that Keir Starmer would be replaced by Burnham.
“Bring it on — the sooner the better,” the deputy Reform leader said, signaling the party was raring to go. That’s not how everyone felt.
“I was sitting there saying no, we’re not,” said one official working on efforts to get election-ready, grimacing and adopting a high-pitched tone to stress just how far from reality this was. They, like others in this piece, were granted anonymity to discuss internal matters.
Those who have participated in the party’s nationwide recruitment tour describe the boot camp-like grillings taking place under a “semi-omerta.”
“It’s like Fight Club,” a senior Reform figure involved in selections joked. “The first rule of parliamentary assessment center is you don’t talk about parliamentary assessment center.”
Reform organizers are all too aware that some of their most careless picks at the last election cost them dear, considering allegations of racism and offensive comments harmed the campaign. To repeat the slapdash approach of old could be fatal to Farage’s chances of ever becoming prime minister.
The party has set up a new vetting process run by Paul Nuttall, the party’s deputy chairman, and candidate testers have already spent nearly 32 days touring the nation. Through Blackpool, Wales, Peterborough and Maidstone, to name but a few stops, old hands have been putting would-be MPs through their paces.
“We’re not here looking to pass you, we’re here looking to fail you,” candidates are told, according to the official quoted above, who has knowledge of the boot camps. “A bad candidate doesn’t just affect themselves — it affects the whole party.”
Senior Reform officials, accompanied by former MPs for rival parties, watch as the wannabes are made to give an impromptu speech, outline a piece of legislation they would introduce as a backbencher and then take part in mock media interviews. All without any forewarning.
“This was significantly more rigorous than the Conservative process,” said one former MP who now acts as a “talent spotter” for Reform. They have watched a string of former Tory colleagues try to win over the judges so they can run for Farage’s party.
“I think there’s a reason for that,” they added. “At the last election there were one or two candidates who attracted a bit of attention because of interesting comments they made.
“Essentially the party was relying on the media to do due diligence for them. This time around there’s nothing of that sort. It is a very impressive procedure.”
The official cited above estimates the reputational damage of having to suspend support for candidates amid allegations of racism shaved off around 4% of Reform’s vote at the 2024 general election.
Farage, who took back day-to-day control of the party while the campaign was at an advanced stage in 2024, had deep concerns himself about some on the party’s last slate.
He privately joked to allies that he was praying for the party not to win in Barnsley North where the candidate had been dropped days before polls opened. The Times reported that candidate said black people should “get off [their] lazy arses” and stop acting “like savages.”
Hence the rigor this time around as Westminster’s favorite game du jour is speculating about the odds of an early election.
Burnham — the theory goes, despite his public protestations — could seek a fresh mandate for his own program of government at a more favorable political moment. Labour has seen a polling bounce since Starmer resigned, and while Reform is still currently neck-and-neck with the party of government they have been trending downwards.
It makes catching Farage out while his party fights off multiple allegations about dodgy donations a tantalizing prospect for Burnham. Farage himself predicts there will be a general election in the spring.
Yet that prediction doesn’t seem to have sped up the selection process. Reform had hoped to have 100 fully approved candidates ready by last week’s party conference in Birmingham — but with that in the rear-view mirror, they’re not quite there still.
“We’ve got 100, but they’re not all fully, absolutely top-drawer vetted yet,” said one high-ranking Reform figure with knowledge of the numbers. The official, who has knowledge of the boot camps, also cited the 100 figure, adding that they still had another round of assessment in store.
A Reform spokesperson said they didn’t recognize the number and added: “This is an ongoing process that will ensure we are ready for a general election whenever it is called.”
Part of that process is preparing aspiring MPs for the limelight.
“Jeremy Kyle gives them a good working over,” said the talent spotting former MP of the media training would-be candidates have got in store with the Reform-supporting TV presenter.
Plus, the candidates still need to get approved by local branches — though party top brass could impose them in the event of a snap election this year.
Earlier this year, Farage set a deadline of the May local elections for defectors to Reform. But three former Conservatives who lost their seats at the last election are among those being discussed by Reform as potential candidates at the next election. These are Jane Stevenson, Ben Bradley and Jonathan Gullis. Reform declined to comment on individual applications.
During a round of mid-conference interviews, Farage was asked by GB News whether he’d managed to even get half the candidates required for a general election.
“I’m a bit behind the clock, but I think we’ve interviewed about 1,400 so far, so this is cranking up by hundreds every week,” he said, acknowledging the pace must be upped.
Mandate for change
It is not just the selection of Commons candidates that is a pressure point for Reform — significant time is being spent working out how to get its policy platform past an unelected upper chamber that the party believes will be hostile towards the more radical aspects of its agenda.
Peers are officially appointed on the advice of the prime minister of the day meaning much of the 800-strong House of Lords is aligned to previous Conservative and Labour administrations.
That means either Farage stacks the Lords with allies, or convinces the upper house to bow to the will of the elected House of Commons.
A research paper being discussed in Reform circles suggests at least 350 to 450 Reform-aligned peers would be needed to have enough support to drive through most of the party’s government business.
The Salisbury Convention means the House of Lords should not block government bills from passing if they’re mentioned in an election manifesto. And Reform frontbenchers are also drawing up a series of draft bills to be published in the lead-up to an election. It’s hoped the unusual move would allow early scrutiny, and demonstrate the greatest possible mandate for their program.
Danny Kruger, the Reform MP who’s leading the party’s efforts to get ready for government, said: “Depending on the timing of the election, we expect to publish draft bills covering some or all of our mandate priorities.
“These include securing our borders, policing our streets, freeing up energy supply, restoring sovereignty and the rule of law, and fixing government itself.”
Whether they manage to draw up bills to cover “some or all” of Reform’s priorities depends on just how early the election is called.
But how many prospective peers they’ll be able to procure before the election is unclear. Kruger said they will “have a long list of people ready to appoint.”
Two party insiders even believe it’s possible to ram through selections in the period between an election being won and House of Commons business restarting.
Farage’s own comments in his main conference speech indicates a more paced response. He threatened to appoint “hundreds” of new peers only if legislation is not passed, and if that “proves difficult,” the high-profile Brexit campaigner promised a referendum on the make-up of the Lords so they can be “swept away by a British public appalled by them.”
But finding hundreds of would-be peers is no mean feat. The official quoted above suggested Reform could bring back 20 to 25 of the hereditary peers kicked out of the Lords by Labour’s shake-up this year.
They added that some could also come from those who fail tests to become MPs, considering the “different skill set” required in the upper chamber. The Reform spokesperson stressed this is not party policy.
“Some of the people who try and fail to get selected for the House of Commons would actually be fine and right for the Lords,” they said. “Older, wiser, not fighting the fight in the media, it’s doing work in the committees so on and so forth.”
Reform’s media-fighting swashbucklers have been a crucial tool in helping the party cut through with the public, and Farage has left some supporters disappointed that he has not yet appointed anyone to key spokesperson roles, covering topics like health and defense.
As recent scandals underscore, Reform recognizes it must professionalize its operation. But with every layer of bureaucracy added comes a slowing in its processes — and the risk that a snap election catches them short.
Dan Bloom contributed reporting.