Reform UK plans to mimic the Liberal Democrats in building up a national base of councillors and activists to try to expand its support, the party’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, has said before its annual conference.
While the mood in Birmingham will be celebratory, with Tice joining Nigel Farage as two of the five Reform MPs elected on 4 July, there could also be some internal dissent over a planned new party constitution, with one senior party figure saying it would allow Farage to act as an “absolute dictator”.
On Friday, the first day of the gathering, there will be speeches from all the MPs, plus Zia Yusuf, the millionaire businessman, Reform’s new chair, who is leading efforts to professionalise the party.
Tice told the Guardian the immediate focus would be on targeting the two main parties at local elections across England next May. “Not only will the Tories be in disarray but Labour will be unpopular coming out of a winter when, bluntly, pensioners will have died because of their policies. So that’s going to be a massive part of our focus,” he said.
Saturday is billed as a chance for the 3,000 activists who Tice said had signed up for the conference to join sessions about creating new branches and choosing candidates.
“We’ve got to take the professionalism to another whole gear and do the branches, because that’s how you’ve got to build up the ground campaign,” he said. “We’ve got to learn from the wonderful Lib Dems, who are very good at that. The truth is they’re the best at ground campaigning. I think we should give credit where it’s due. It’s what they’re really good at.”
Another major focus, and one that could prove more controversial, is the structure of Reform. The party is registered as a limited company, with Farage owning a majority of shares. The extent of the control this gives Farage was shown just after the election when Ben Habib, who had been deputy leader, was unceremoniously removed to make way for Tice. Tice had spent three years as leader but stepped down for Farage shortly before the election.
Tice said the party’s new governing structure would be revealed at the conference and would involve “democratisation”.
However, Habib told the Guardian the party had reneged on earlier promises to give members the right to oust their leader. “This is a rehash of a document that was rejected a year and a half ago,” Habib said. “There are changes but it actually increases the democratic deficit within Reform UK.”
He said the proposed structure included having some directors chosen from a list approved by the leader, and allowing the leader to make significant decisions between board meetings. “In other words he can be an absolute dictator. There are no checks and balances.”
Reform faces other controversies, most of them directly linked to Farage. He faced severe criticism, including from senior Conservatives, after he appeared to amplify far-right conspiracies by suggesting the police could be withholding information about the killings of three children in Southport in July.
The party leader has faced questions over his commitment as the MP for Clacton-on-Sea. He has voted just three times in the Commons so far, the same number of times as he has visited the US since the election, and spoken five times in the chamber.
Tice defended Farage’s close links to Donald Trump, a figure who polling shows is largely unpopular in the UK. “I almost hardly ever get asked by people about Trump. Nigel’s views are well known. I’ve never met Donald Trump, but my view is that the world was a much safer place when he was president,” he said.
On Farage’s work ethic as an MP, Tice – who has spoken 16 times in the Commons since the election – said one of the issues was the arcane procedures of being in parliament.
“In the winter fuel debate, I was there for four and a half hours, bobbing up and down, to speak for a minute and 40 seconds. Some people didn’t get called at all. You could argue that’s not a great use of some people’s time, like for Nigel,” he said.
“The bottom line is, if you want something doing, give it to a busy, successful person. And Nigel is a busy, successful person. He doesn’t take holidays. He works 24/7.”
