Behind the scenes it is a different story, with individual MPs from other parties queuing up to ask the Reform UK leader to sign House of Commons wine bottles and drinks coasters for family members and constituents who are fans of his brand of straight-talking populism. It’s not clear whether those MPs acknowledge the cognitive dissonance involved.
It’s causing tangible jitters among both Labour and Conservative MPs. At PMQs, Farage accused them of “panic.”
Behind the scenes, other Labour MPs have requested training sessions from No 10 on how to deal with Reform in their areas. “It really troubles them,” a Labour source said.
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Meanwhile, both Labour and the Tories acknowledge Reform is beating them at online campaigning, with a strong presence on both Facebook and TikTok.
“Facebook is incredibly influential. The speed with which news goes through it is quite something. Even if a thought starts on X, its influence is felt on Facebook. And it is particularly in those kinds of pages that don’t look deeply political… Where it’s most felt is on those pages where it says, for instance, ‘Do you want to buy a bike and there’s a party on this weekend and, by the way, don’t we all agree with Elon Musk on child safety?’” a No 10 source told The i Paper.
And if this is her first policy proposal, she has also previously used dog-whistle politics to identify “peasants” from “sub-communities” in some countries as those responsible for grooming and raping child victims.
“The best thing we have in dealing with Reform is time,” one Conservative MP told The i Paper. “Every day, every week that goes by, there is more of a distance between us as a newly refreshed party and the previous administration and we can set out new policies and new ideas.”
But it’s not just the threat of Tory MPs and local councillors defecting to Reform that Conservatives should be worried about. Voters appear to be hiving off to Farage’s party in droves. Elections for regional mayors in May will be the first test of whether the current polls are right.
And inside Westminster, Reform staffers are optimistic about the party’s fortunes, with talk of hundreds of MPs after the next general election, building on the party’s breakthrough success with five MPs last July. “It’s easier to go from five to 300 MPs than it is from zero to five,” a source said.
“What we are witnessing is a fundamental shift in British politics. The Tory party has every right to be in panic mode,” a Reform source told The i Paper.
However sniffy MPs are about Farage in the House of Commons, they know he’s a force to be reckoned with in the country. And they have the signed gifts for their friends to prove it.
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