Nigel Farage reportedly met with Brexit architect Dominic Cummings as Reform UK attempts to pick itself back up after an explosive row with one of its own MPs.
Despite the pair having once been bitter political enemies, Mr Farage and Mr Cummings are said to have discussed how to tackle civil service bureaucracy – an issue figures on the right have blamed for problems in government.
It comes after the Met Police launched an investigation into suspended Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe, who was stripped of the whip amid allegations he made “verbal threats” against Zia Yousaf, the party’s chairman – allegations Mr Lowe denies.
At the time, he dismissed them as “vexatious” and suggested he had been stitched up by the party leadership, including Nigel Farage.
The police probe is the latest twist in the Reform civil war, which has been playing out behind the scenes but exploded publicly at the start of this month.
And as the chaos plays out in the public eye, Mr Farage appears to be attempting to make an ally out of Mr Cummings - who has had bitter fallouts with several political figures, including Boris Johnson, Savid Javid and more recently Kemi Badenoch.
“Nigel and Dom did have a meeting — they discussed how to take on the blob”, a source told The Sunday Times.
An old colleague of Mr Cummings said he had a “friendly chat” with Mr Farage “about the general scene, about Trump and Doge, about how No 10 and the Cabinet Office really work, about the catastrophe of the Tory party and about what Reform has to do to replace the Tories.”
However, Mr Cummings is said to have no plans to work for the Reform leader.
The historic rivalry between the two political figures is said to date back to the Brexit referendum. But Mr Farage went on to make his views on Mr Cummings public in 2020 when he described him as a “horrible, nasty little man”.
The latest reports of a meeting between the pair coms after the former Vote Leave chief launched an attack on Mrs Badenoch’s leadership of the Tory party.
“Kemi spends more time playing games on her iPad than thinking about how and why Tories failed so badly”, he wrote on his blog, warning that the Tory party is “dead unless it re-engages with core issues of productivity and state capacity.”
Details of Mr Farage’s meeting with Mr Cummings come amid reports that a Reform UK general election candidate who said Hitler was “brilliant” at inspiring people and described Bashar al-Assad as “gentle by nature” is now in charge of the party’s vetting process.
Jack Aaron’s comments emerged last year when he stood for the party in Welwyn Hatfield, but according to the Guardian, he has since had a promotion.
His new role includes looking at prospective candidates’ social media profiles and advising them on whether anything should be taken down.
A spokesperson for Reform UK said: “Mr Aaron is Jewish, and sits on his local synagogue council. His grandfather came to this country as a refugee from Vienna and much of his family on that side were murdered by Hitler’s regime.
“Reform UK does not disclose details of our internal vetting process and nor staff members involved.”
Reform UK has been contacted for comment.
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