The subject of this article is participating in the 2024 general election to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom on 4 July, and has had no MPs in the House of Commons since Parliament was dissolved on 30 May. Some parts of this article may be out of date during this period. |
Reform UK | |
---|---|
Leader | Nigel Farage |
Chairman | Richard Tice |
Co-Deputy Leaders | David Bull Ben Habib |
Founders |
|
Founded | 23 November 2018 as the Brexit Party |
Headquarters | 83 Victoria Street London SW1 0HW[1] |
Devolved branches | Reform UK Scotland Reform UK Wales |
Membership | 40,000+[2][third-party source needed] |
Ideology | Right-wing populism Euroscepticism |
Political position | Right-wing[3] |
Affiliates | Reform Derby[4] Bolton for Change[5] |
Northern Irish affiliation | |
Colours | Turquoise and white |
Slogan | Britain Needs Reform |
House of Commons | Parliament dissolved |
London Assembly | 1 / 25 |
Local government[6] | 10 / 18,725 |
Website | |
reformparty.uk | |
Reform UK is a right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. Founded in November 2018 as the Brexit Party, advocating a no-deal Brexit, it won the 2019 European Parliament election in the UK, but did not win any seats at the 2019 general election. After the UK's withdrawal from the EU in January 2020, it renamed itself Reform UK, and during the COVID-19 pandemic advocated strongly against lockdowns.[7] Since 2022, the party has campaigned on a broader platform, in particular opposing immigration and the government's Net Zero energy policy.[8][9] Following Farage's resumption of the party leadership in early June during the 2024 general election campaign, Reform briefly came within 2% of the Conservative Party in opinion polls, before dropping back to 9 to 10% behind them.
Farage had been the leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), a right-wing populist and Eurosceptic party, in the first half of the 2010s, and returned to frontline politics as leader of the Brexit Party during the lengthy Brexit process after the 2016 EU membership referendum, which had been called partly in response to UKIP's influence.[10][11] The Brexit Party campaigned for a no-deal Brexit and there were high-profile defections to it from the Conservative Party, including Ann Widdecombe and Annunziata Rees-Mogg.[12] Following the election of foremost Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson as Leader of the Conservative Party, Farage offered him an electoral pact at the 2019 general election, which Johnson rejected, but the Brexit Party decided unilaterally not to stand candidates against sitting Conservative MP's. It did not win any seats at the 2019 general election.
By May 2020, the British exit from the EU having taken place, the party focussed on the reformation of British democracy and a name change from Brexit Party to Reform Party was proposed.[13][14][15] The COVID-19 pandemic began in the UK in 2020, and the Conservative government imposed a series of national lockdowns. Farage rebranded the party as Reform UK around the end of the year and focussed on anti-lockdown campaigning.[16][17] Farage stepped down as leader in March 2021 and was succeeded by Richard Tice. Lee Anderson, who was elected in 2019 as a Conservative MP, defected to the party in March 2024, becoming the party's first and only MP.[18] In a press conference on 3 June 2024, Richard Tice announced that Nigel Farage would become leader once more, with Tice continuing as Chairman. [19]
John Curtice, 2024
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