I had a pint at Reform’s new pub – it was a wake-up call ...Middle East

It’s Sunday afternoon and it’s rocking at The Talbot, Blackpool – Britain’s first Reform UK pub. For 100 years this building was a Conservative club, but now, in the same month that the party took control of 10 councils in local elections, it’s been given a dramatic makeover. The landlords have unveiled a new branded pub sign complete with party name and emblem, posters on pin boards, and Union flags.

On the sunny terrace now painted in Reform turquoise, a Reform councillor is doing the rounds (he can’t be older than 25) as locals swill pints and smoke cigarettes. Inside the first of two rooms, there isn’t a table free as groups gather round scorecards to play bingo. A host behind a small blue booth is reading out numbers: “Dirty knee,” he says. “Thirty-three.”

Through a little wooden door dividing the neon-lit bar is a larger space full of bright green snooker tables, families sitting down to £5 roast dinners, and old boys half-watching Nottingham Forest see off West Ham.

“You a West Ham fan?” asks one patron. “No, Palace, FA Cup winners,” is my reply. He turns away. I notice a sign nearby that reads, “Any children left unattended will be sold as slaves.”

I get myself a Guinness and meet landlord Nick Lowe. He took over the club in 2009 alongside business partner Peter Flynn. This year, having discovered they had both joined Reform UK independently, they were moved to rebrand it.

Lowe was asked by party officials to start leafleting in the area, and offered up the premises for use instead. The function room upstairs has space for 180, while the £3.50 chicken curry attracts budget-conscious events organisers.

“I was talking about everything with Pete and we just thought, ‘Let’s change it [from a Conservative club] to a Reform one.’ Everyone is welcome. Come down and give us a try.”

So far, Lowe says, it’s proved to be profitable.

“It’s much busier now,” he says, “I’d say we’ve had 50 or 60 per cent more customers since we became the Reform pub. We still get lots of locals in and have the Reform crowd too. They’ve come from all over – Fleetwood, Manchester, Hull, everywhere. We’ve even had a couple of visitors from Glasgow and Belfast.”

If Britain’s pubs are supposed to harbour all – dukes next to bus drivers; firefighters at tables with film stars – this is not it. This feels more like a microcosm, and a reminder that there are pockets of society who feel completely alone – like “strangers in their own country”.

Blackpool residents Donna and Lee both joined Reform two years ago, feeling “disillusioned” with the Tories after 25 years of loyal following. “We live around the corner, but it’s our first time here,” Donna says. “We were curious. It’s lovely.”

Donna, who alongside her partner asks not to give her full name, adds she hasn’t had any political conversations yet but wouldn’t be against doing so. Her opinions are forthcoming: “The net zero drive is damaging. We shouldn’t be giving up our oil and gas licences. Pylons are devastating for the countryside.

“Solar panels too. They have a 20-year lifespan. There are chemicals going into the soil. And now we’re finding out the Chinese-made ones possibly have kill switches in them, which they’ve found in the US. It means the Chinese can switch us off. Wind turbines are killing seabirds in the hundreds of thousands.”

The couple, who are landlords, seem to feel disenfranchised by Westminster: “The Tories turned into a high-tax, big-state party. Things need to be turned around. Poverty needs addressing… Everything is controlled by think tanks and quangos. It takes away the accountability of Westminster. Politicians are given scripts. It’s almost like they don’t have a choice.”

I find myself in need of another pint. Back at the bar, I change to Stella (£4.50), cannily avoiding the two pints for £6 deal (Carling) in the hope of staying sober enough to make my delayed train back to London. Perched nearby is Cliff Dyson, a retiree and former nurse.

“I live next door and have been coming here for years. It’s always been very good and they’ve always looked after me. The food is great and very cheap – you can’t beat the prices anywhere.”

Does he favour the rebrand? “I was a Conservative member for a very long time but I’ve decided to be part of Reform. So I think it’s nice here. People are coming again and it’s busy. Don’t mention the bingo though or you’ll be carried out on a stretcher.” Dyson was an entertainer for the elderly, after nursing.

I find chef Colin in the kitchen. He welcomes me in, taking a break from service as his two young assistants wash up and prepare veg. A portion of broccoli is boiling on the stove next to a near-cauldron of gravy; a beef and onion roll is waiting to go out; cooked Yorkshire puddings sit ready in a plastic bowl.

“I agree with everything,” Colin tells me. “Reform seems to be getting a lot of support. As for here, it’s been busier since the change, more people are coming in drinking and buying food, so I think more of these [branded pubs] will spring up around the country. This is the first one, but the more the merrier.”

square POLITICS Analysis

Historic Tory collapse in Blackpool South can't just be blamed on Reform

In the pub, the bar is quietening down as families finish Sunday roasts and make way for the handful of younger drinkers arriving for the evening. The serious snooker players have gone and the bingo is in its final throes, evident by passionate cries of near-victory from various corners of the room. Bands of merry ladies are filling up wine glasses.

It seems like any other working bar. Take the signs away and it would be – just a local hangout in a forgotten seaside town. But Reform are hoping this is the first of many dedicated spaces and clubs.

Pubs are where change happens. They’re where movements are forged and ideologues wrought – and for those of us living in an urban, liberal bubble, my afternoon at The Talbot might be a wake-up call. Reform’s political rise feels pretty unstoppable.

Liam O’Brien – a chef in the RAF for almost 20 years – and his partner Vicky Frost moved to Blackpool from an old Yorkshire mining town to “start afresh”.

O’Brien says: “We came in when it opened [as the Reform pub] and we’re regulars now. It’s a good pub, really friendly and full of like-minded people. We’re not members of Reform but we’re not happy with the current situation in the UK and what’s going on with immigration.

“I see a lot of homeless veterans – I was homeless myself for 18 months – and I don’t think it’s fair. We should be looking after ourselves. But if you say anything, you’re labelled racist.

“People think just because you come here, you’re a neo-Nazi. It’s not like that. We just want our country to be normal again.”

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