40 Ways to Reframe Reform

I went undercover at the Reform UK Conference in Cornwall last week. Only members could get in. I handed over my £25 fee, hid my social media accounts and, dressed up in the cold Kernow rain, made my way to the Carn Brea Leisure Centre in Redruth.

There was an anti-fascist protest of 80 people outside, mainly young. Inside, Matt Goodwin mocked the protesters, and Nigel Farage labelled them AntiFa. Both got a 5/10 roar from the crowd. The biggest cheer of the night, however, wasn’t for Farage’s catwalk, nor Ann Widdecombe’s off-piste comments about “the black being equal to the white”. It was for a promise that “once Nigel is in No.10” Reform would deliver Brexit and leave the European Court of Human Rights.

There to hear first-hand the rhetoric deployed and the responses, I’d expected other promises to register higher on the Clap(ton)ometer. But hatred of the ECHR isn’t a Reform invention. The Brussels-based court was a target of the Conservatives in their campaign to ‘regain British sovereignty’ in the 2000s and 2010s. Hundreds of Daily Mail headlines have lodged over decades in the minds of the, presumably, 800 ex-Tory voters turned Reform members in the room. A sure sign that repetitive narratives work.

Most in the sports hall looked fed-up with politics-as-usual. This seat was Conservative between 1970-1997, and then again 2010-2024. I met farmers, pensioners, and some younger people at their first rally. It wasn’t an unfriendly crowd. It was an audience that felt vulnerable and frustrated; some were angry, some hopeful. Labour won this seat at the last election. It didn’t feel like they’d win it again. Yes, the speeches were repetitive (Farage), rough at the edges (local candidates) or in need of a fact-check (Matt Goodwin). Perhaps we're getting carried away with the polls. But in the room it felt reasonable to think: Reform is not going away. The Tories are done here. Labour too?

Ann Widdecombe Speech poor audio quality

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So what to do now? How do we combat Reform? Speak to the people they’re speaking to? Outmanoeuvre the insurgent right-wing revolters? Because they are revolting: they’re currently the only national voice offering UK voters an explanation for why their lives feel crap, who they can blame, and what they can do about it.

To be clear. This isn’t combating the people voting for Reform. This is about the party machine: running on a strategy of division, prejudice, and disinforming those voters.

What follows isn’t empirical analysis. We’re onto that, as are other organisations who work for a kinder, more secure future for those who live on or come to these islands. What follows are rough works in progress to test and refine. Here’s 11 initial ideas (and 29 more quickfire links):

1. Reform aren’t the outsiders – they’re as establishment as they come
   The fact Reform *appear* to be surging (see no.8) is in part down to the structural position they can take, as the outsider-challenger. That doesn’t mean they are outsiders (Obama also used this strategy). They’re a parliamentary party of millionaires, same as the Tories. Their methods are pure establishment: a traditional political party (still owned by Farage) with strong mainstream media backing. Which is quite ironic, given they spend half their conferences attacking establishment politics and media. 
   
2. Reform is the party for billionaires
   Untrustworthy billionaires see Reform as the best vehicle to align with their war on ordinary people: through deregulation, eviscerating welfare safety-nets, and a concentration of power. Remember, the rich go towards fascism. Their propagandists such as Goodwin get paid to distract us by garbling facts to make us think they’re standing up for us. Yes, part of the appeal is that Farage talks about wealth with a “you can have it too” bravado. But he’s a privileged man who's never chosen between heating and eating (see No.26). But if we were told we have to trample over others to get rich, most of us wouldn’t aspire to be billionaires. Most of us aspire to a meaningful, dignified, fun and loving life. But dignity isn’t the reason the billionaires are swarming around. Their support for Reform is for a party who protects their wealth-hoarding.
   
3. Reform doesn’t want you to vote out of British values of kindness and fairness, but rather out of fear and anger
   A person in Hartlepool told us, “I’ve voted in every direction and nothing’s ever changed anyway, so what’s the point?” Reform is making a convincing economic argument of why our lives feel worse, why we feel economically insecure (41% between ages of 31-59 feel so; see this) and who’s responsible (the elites, the migrants). Insecure voters are most likely to switch votes, or, more likely, not vote. Reform is telling people their vote matters. Our job is to get people voting at the next General Election from a different set of emotions: kindness, fairness, compassion, not frustration, righteousness, anger or disillusionment. If standards of living keep dropping, that will be difficult. What are the practical things that are going to get better for people if they vote from kindness and fairness? How do we show this?
   
4. Why does Reform try to veil its attacks on brown-skinned people?
   From analysing their conference speeches, it’s clear Reform veils its attacks on Asian and Black communities by not going at them directly. Say 90% of their attacks are aimed at political elites, a woke ruling class, who have failed Britain and the “indigenous English”. How they’ve failed Britain is through chaos at the borders, handing away sovereignty, and political correctness. The fact that it is brown-skinned immigrants fleeing wars and climate collapse elsewhere who can easily be scapegoated for these failures, is made to seem inconsequential by the rhetorical structure of Reform’s narrative. This is how they get away with it. Call them out on how they get away with it.
   
5. Reform won’t protect you, your family or your home
   Reform’s narrative is at odds with their policies. While they promise to reclaim Britain they do so by pushing for deregulation and scrapping environment-securing plans to leave families and homes unsafe from flooding and extreme heat. A strong, safe Britain needs strong regulation and their enforcement. Reform doesn’t offer real protection.
   
6. Reform are the Small Britain Party
   They don’t want people here. They don’t want to be part of Europe. They don’t want us to grow, unless all the children are white. They don’t want to be great at all. They want to go backwards. They want Britain to be the small bully in the small playground, Goyle to America’s Malfoy. Their manifesto is all about shrinking, cutting, getting smaller. 
   
7. Reform doesn’t have a vision for the future
   Reform asks people to “imagine” the future, but only if it starts from the view of “life in the UK today is much worse than it used to be” (here). It’s quite easy to show that Reform doesn’t have a vision for the future, because most of its policies are backward looking. Ask Reform what young people think of their policies. Ask them how they are taking future generations into account. Ask them what their environmental policies are, in detail. At their conference and in their manifesto, they never define or discuss Net Zero. It is simply a trigger-phrase they use to evoke anger in a zero-sum game with NHS spending – even when their spending on the NHS doesn’t add up at all.
   
8. Reform doesn’t have all the momentum
   You know those “if I manifest it will come true” scams? That’s Reform’s electoral narrative. The problem is, millions want to believe in such stories, particularly if there isn’t a more convincing story about the awful-feeling mess people find themselves in. But the hard facts are that Reform has only gained 500,000 votes since the heights of UKIP in 2015. Don’t repeat the narrative that Reform has all the momentum, in case we actually give it to them.
   
9. Musk is already funding Reform – and will pour in millions
   Through X, Reform’s politicians are already raking in thousands by recycling hatred online. Elon’s interest in Reform is about breaking our laws so Big Tech global corporations can control our resources and power. Europe is the last defence in maintaining laws to regulate Big Tech’s control over our lives, our money, our data, our privacy. Elon doesn’t want any laws, because laws protect us as humans, which are inefficient machines. Don’t believe us? Have a look… Elon and the Broligarchy have identified Reform as the most likely to deliver on their network-state agenda. Big Tech donor money will flow through Reform to target your psychology. They are coming for you, your family, and your house, and you won’t even know it. They will stimulate your fears at just the time they want your votes. They won’t target Labour voters, or Conservative voters. They will target your vulnerability. People who vote are not idiots. But you won’t know you’re voting for a Big Tech programme to steal your privacy and your safety. Musk turning on Farage as not up to the job was about Farage’s discomfort with following through on this plan. If Farage won’t, the next Reform leader will.
   
10. Push them on “smart immigration”
    Reform promises “smart immigration, not mass immigration” and asks people to “imagine no small boats” but offers no legal routes for people to seek asylum. Ann Widdecombe said: “every single one of those people on a small boat will be considered to have no claim to asylum” which is, actually, illegal. Reform gets away with it by keeping the conversation on their patch. Ask them who will come, how, and how they will keep Britain great by exhibiting British values of fairness, welcome, hospitality, and leading on the international stage. (Please follow the amazing Migrant Rights Watch, Global Witness, Praxis, Hope Not Hate, Zoe Gardner, and others doing this work.)

But the big takeaway…? Don’t focus on Reform
We need our vision for the future, which isn’t bound by Reform’s narrative. In fact, as a mentor to our project Professor Jeremy Till has reminded us recently, it’s part of the Right’s strategy to have us endlessly discussing their actions and behaviours (a point also made by a contact at FoE Scotland). Limit your office chat to 10 mins of organ music on the opposition, and free yourselves from reactive work. 

So what is the better story to tell? It’s about belonging.

11. Everybody needs something to join – let’s make sure it’s not Reform
    Reform’s narrative is movement-building, inspired by MAGA. Reform is rallying people to a cause of belonging: to take Britain back from an elite ruling class who have forgotten about the majority of (white) British people. They are modelling what Robert Puttnam illustrates so well in his work on the collapse of American society, in the film Join or Die. Everyone needs something to join, and it doesn’t matter what it is. The belonging is what matters. So what do we offer people struggling with the cost of living and who believe their opinion doesn’t matter? Where’s our movement to belong to?

Unless we find ways to communicate the real reasons why our lives feel worse – to tell a convincing story about the thieves of neoliberal economics and a ruling class hoarding wealth and power, of which Farage is paid-up member – Reform will provide the story for millions who are struggling and want to know who to blame, and give them the movement to belong to. Let’s not let them do that.

…these are some interim thoughts guiding our convening and our collaborations, work in progress of ideas tracked and shared. They’re offered in the spirit of thinking out loud so that we can contribute, be challenged, find allies, and fill gaps. A thank you to those we’re talking with who keep sharing useful links and references.

Some quick-fire ideas (links are sometimes examples, sometimes resources):

12. Show voters how Farage votes in Parliament (h/t TUC) 
13. Reform is stuck in its echo chamber when it wangs on about culture wars (here)
14. Reform’s figures on running Britain don’t stack up (here)
15. Farage thinks of himself as really bad and evil, just not the evillest (here’s how)
16. They’re hypocrites on renewable energy, saying one thing, doing another (here)
17. Their policies will also make energy more expensive for British people (here)
18. Farage isn’t interested in democracy, he (still) owns Reform as a company (here)
19. 42% of Reform voters support a ban on new oil and gas (here)
20. 50% of Reform voters accept climate change is a real issue & we can act (here)
21. Even half of Reform voters want caps on political donations (here)
22. Reform will offer £150 billion less on public spending, with policies that would primarily benefit economic elites while devastating public services (here) 
23. Yes they’re far-right (here and here) 
24. Although it might be more useful to say that Reform are radicalising people (here)
25. Spain has the most vibrant economy right now because of the immigrants who have gone there to work. Why does Reform believe it won’t work in Britain? (here)
26. If Nigel is such a businessman, why does he scam people on bullion? (here)
27. Farage isn’t even as popular as Ed Davey for next prime minister! (here)
28. Farage has a track record of undermining elections for his own gain (here)
29. Farage is a huge fan of Enoch Powell and the “rivers of blood” speech (here)
30. “[Don’t] worry about the n****r vote. They will never vote for us” (here)
31. How deep does Reform’s corruption around Russia really go? (here)
32. And just how much are Farage and Reform in Putin’s pocket? (here)
33. Or is Farage really Jeremy Corbyn in disguise? (here) (with apologies to JC)
34. Reform voters are very moveable (with the usual caveats, here)
35. Reform have no interest at all in real freedom of speech (here) because they aren’t interested in the rights of others to be listened to who disagree with them
36. Reform are part of the system, and the system is rigged (here, US)
37. And let’s not forget, Words Matter (here)
38. Reform don’t care about the Red Wall (here)
39. Reform are Europhiles on policy! (here)

And my personal favourite:

40. They’re sneaky lying fuckers (too many links, but overhearing Richard Tice in the green room at TalkTV admit to knowing he had Covid but got on a plane to Spain anyway, maskless, is a great example; as were all the climate denial books he was using as a stand to raise his screen in the studio)

There’s many more ideas and frames circulating. What would you add?