Reform UK: Fundraising scandal puts Nigel Farage on the defensive

Reform UK wanted to present itself as an alternative at their party conference. But a new donation scandal puts Nigel Farage on the defensive - and makes a change of power seem a long way off.

Nigel Farage: The reform leader had to justify dubious party donations at the party conference in Birmingham. Photo: AP Photo/Thomas Krych

London. Everything was carefully planned: the Reform UK party conference in Birmingham was intended to show the British that the right-wing populist party with its leader Nigel Farage was prepared to take power.

The party led in the opinion polls for months. A 100-day program was prepared, which Farage wanted to enforce with national emergency laws. Then everything turned out completely differently.

Since Friday, Reform UK and its party leader have been in a state of political emergency and are experiencing for the first time what it feels like when populists become unpopular.

A new party donations scandal disrupted the carefully planned choreography of the party conference and pushed Farage and his followers into a permanent defensive position. Two of his closest advisers, including Head of Policy James Orr, were forced to resign.

In his keynote speech, which was repeatedly interrupted by hecklers, Farage described the affair as a “small local problem”. The party was not guilty of anything. “We didn’t take any illegal donations,” said the right-wing populist.

Party in need

The receipt shouldn't take long to arrive. Even before the latest party donation scandal, Reform UK had fallen to third place in the polls behind the ruling Labor Party and the opposition Conservatives.