Nigel Farage has declared that Reform is gearing up for potential governance, suggesting the party could be fully prepared within a month or two. He speculated that the chaos engulfing the Labour Party might trigger a general election as soon as this year.
Speaking at a Reform gathering in Birmingham, Farage announced on Monday that the party’s website is now open for applications from Britain’s most talented individuals eager to stand as candidates in the forthcoming general election. He urged his “people’s army” to mobilize and accept the challenge.
Addressing an audience of 2,500 supporters, Farage promised to unveil his shadow cabinet in the coming days, emphasizing his intent to recruit skilled individuals from beyond the traditional political sphere to prepare for a potential Reform-led government.
The announcement coincided with news that Simon Dudley, the former chair of Homes England, has joined the ranks of Reform.
As Sir Keir Starmer struggles to maintain his leadership, Farage is committed to assembling a robust list of candidates, ready to compete in a general election should the current Prime Minister decide to step down this year.
The Labour leader is currently under pressure to preserve his position after it surfaced last week that he had appointed Peter Mandelson as a US envoy, despite being aware of Mandelson’s association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar yesterday called for the PM to resign, after his chief of staff handed in his notice at the weekend, and his comms director followed him out the door.
Nigel Farage fired Reform T-shirts into the crowd at the Birmingham NEC Centre on Monday – as he called for Britain’s ‘brightest and best’ to run as candidates for MPs
Mr Farage was joined by his eight Reform MPs on stage after announcing he would reveal his shadow cabinet in coming days
But Sir Keir’s Cabinet ministers rallied round their leader pledging loyalty – temporarily staving off any leadership challenge.
Soft-left agitator Angela Rayner even said the Prime Minister had her ‘full support’ as she urged Labour MPs to ‘come together, remember our values and put them into practice as a team’.
Claiming that none of his Cabinet ‘want to appear to be the person that wields the knife’ that takes down Sir Keir, Mr Farage predicted the PM will soon be ‘gone and replaced by somebody undoubtedly far worse’.
Mr Farage warned that the ‘lunacy’ over Angela Rayner’s employment reforms would be the tip of the iceberg if she were to take over from Sir Keir, while Reform chief whip Lee Anderson suggested the former deputy prime minister had been ‘throwing money away’ after footage emerged this weekend of her having a fresh haircut.
But Mr Farage stopped short of saying Reform is now ready to take the keys of No 10 should the Labour Government fall.
He said: ‘We’ve really only been properly in gear for the last 18, 20 months.
‘What we’ve achieved in that short space of time is truly remarkable, but it’s rather like building a company: the first 25 per cent takes a long time, and then once you’ve got things moving, things slip into gear very quickly.
‘I said a couple of weeks ago, we were 50 per cent prepared.
‘I would argue, within a month or two months, we will genuinely be ready, certainly more ready than all of the others.’
Setting out his plans for power, Mr Farage said Reform is working on plans to revolutionise the civil service.
Reform have promised to axe 68,500 jobs in the civil service should they succeed at the polls and to reduce the salary bill by 17 per cent.
Mr Farage joked that the first civil servants to get the chop will be those ‘saying that they’re suffering through emotional trauma at the prospect of a Reform Government’.
But Reform has come in for criticism as Worcestershire county council, led by the party, looks set to issue England’s largest council tax rise this April.
Sir Keir’s Cabinet ministers rallied round their leader pledging loyalty – temporarily staving off any leadership challenge – after the PM revealed he had known about Peter Mandelson’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein before appointing him US ambassador
Mr Farage on Monday called Worcestershire county council a ‘total basket case’, adding ‘never once’ did Reform pledge to cut council tax.
While Reform has accepted many former Conservative MPs and ministers into its ranks in recent weeks, Mr Farage insisted yesterday there is a ‘clear dividing line’ between his party and Labour and the Tories – who both believe ‘the country is not broken’.
Recent Tory defector Robert Jenrick said at the rally his former party ‘don’t walk the same streets’ to see Britain’s decline.
Former Conservative MP Suella Braverman, meanwhile, said she had ‘had enough of Tory delusion.’
Hitting back at Reform, Conservative Kevin Hollinkrake said: ‘Nigel Farage is very good at shouting ‘Broken Britain’ from the sidelines, but very light on credible answers.
‘Reform’s entire pitch still boils down to his one-man-band protest politics and wish lists. It’s not a serious plan to govern.’
Reform’s first electoral test will be at the local elections on May 7 – a date the Reform leader said he approached with a ‘growing sense of optimism every day’.
