Will Reform UK’s conference prove more than a one-man show?

Reform UK, on 30 per cent plus in the opinion polls and with talk of them forming the next government, are gathering for their short but no doubt dramatic two-day conference at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. They’ve made substantial progress since the last general election, and the conference will attract great attention, with all wondering what sort of national exhibitions they’ll make of themselves.

Nigel Farage, of course, who dominates his party as few other leaders do or indeed ever have. It’s a bit less of a one-man show than it was, but the keynote speech on Friday afternoon will be the focus of attention. We may safely expect some spectacular grievance exploitation, inflammatory language about migration, and some rather cruel jibes about Angela Rayner and Kemi Badenoch. It would not be a huge surprise if the woman, Lucy Connolly, jailed for a race hate post, popped up somewhere.

Transgender prisoners, you mean? Certainly. One of the members’ motions is to ban all transgender women prisoners from female jails. This is contrary to the policy suggested by Reform’s own expert policy adviser, Vanessa Frake, based on her experience as a prison governor, which was to deal with such challenges on a “case-by-case” basis. When the issue came up a few months ago, Farage at first backed Frake before reversing his position under pressure.

Decidedly not. The time allocated for a debate on three members’ motions is half an hour around Saturday lunchtime, with a vote by show of hands. Even then, the motion will merely be “discussed by the party board” within three months. There’s no guarantee any members’ motion will end up in a Reform UK manifesto. Although it’s a move from being a company controlled by Farage and Richard Tice to being more like a conventional membership party, it is still very far from democratic. After his fractious experiences in the practice of internal democracy in Ukip, that’s not the Farage way of doing politics. This is a tightly controlled agenda, by which the various MPs, mayors and councillors speak to, or at, the members, and the grassroots are kept away from the cameras as much as possible.

No time for that, as such. They’ve only got two days and they’ve no idea what to do. “Skip it” seems to be the order of the day.

Nothing official, funnily enough.

There’ll be a few, but then again, too few to mention? Jacob Rees-Mogg would be the most welcome catch from the Tories, with Suella Braverman and Liz Truss rather more problematic assets. A real coup would be if they were able to find anyone notable from Labour willing to make the somersault from social democracy to the extreme right. A few more Tory deadbeats won’t impress anyone.

Immigration, immigration, immigration, plus, closely allied, various sessions on the theme of “Britain is lawless”. Councillor Jaymey McIvor, who has been accused of being expelled from the Conservative Party last year over allegations that he sent an unsolicited image of his “private parts”, is hosting a discussion on “Cleaning up our councils”.

One anti-vaxxer on the platform, a regrettable first for a supposedly responsible national political party with designs on governance, plus some cryptocurrency types, and increasingly trenchant climate denial. Plenty more besides, too, and the vox pops should be entertaining/terrifying. The more radical elements will be able to explore the outer edges of the Overton window in a much-expanded fringe (or fringe on the fringe) scene. For those with a strong stomach, Michael Gove will be “in conversation” with Zia Yusuf. There will be fruitcakes and the ghosts of Rupert Lowe, Ben Habib, Elon Musk and Tommy Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon). It’s Reform UK, though. What do you expect?