What does Reform UK stand for?

Large donations from a number of wealthy billionaires including Elon Musk will help Reform UK deliver "political disruption like we have never seen before", the party's new treasurer has said.

Speaking to the Financial Times, property developer Nick Candy set out the goal for Reform: overtaking the Conservatives as the UK's main party of the right, while also drawing voters away from Labour.

Many in Westminster fear a financial intervention from Musk, the world's richest person who reportedly plans to give as much as $100 million (£80 million) to the party, "could have a significant and lasting impact on British politics, giving Reform the resources to transform itself into an established vehicle for power".

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What is Reform UK?

Founded by Nigel Farage in 2018 as the single-issue Brexit Party, it was rebranded as Reform following the UK's formal departure from the EU at the start of 2020.

Initially focused on anti-lockdown messages during the pandemic before pivoting to broader right-wing populist themes, Reform has surged in the polls over the past 18 months thanks to its ability to offer an alternative to a Westminster elite who "speak an entirely different language to those who live in the real world", said The Telegraph.

Despite running an at-times chaotic and amateurish ground game, the party still secured millions of votes in July's general election. The UK's first-past-the-post electoral system meant this only translated into five MPs, but crucially it came second in 98 seats, 89 of which were won by Labour.

What are Reform's policies?

Reform UK has a populist agenda aimed at attracting voters from both the left and right who are frustrated with the two main parties and feel strongly about issues such as immigration and the costs of net zero.

In a column published in The Telegraph to announce the party's relaunch in 2020, Farage and former party leader Richard Tice vowed to take on "powerful vested interests", including "badly run, wasteful quangos", the BBC, the House of Lords and the Home Office.

Reform's manifesto for last summer's UK general election was described by Farage as "radical" and "outside the box" and put a hardline stance on immigration unsurprisingly front and centre.

Reform's plan to "stop the boats" carrying migrants crossing the Channel completely is part of a four-point plan to curb illegal immigration. It would freeze all "non-essential" legal migration and take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights so it can use offshore processing centres for illegal immigrants and prevent them from claiming asylum.

Shrinking the size of the state and reducing the tax burden is another key pledge Reform hopes will win over disillusioned voters. A planned £50 billion a year reduction in government spending would help fund its manifesto pledges to raise the income tax threshold from £12,571 to £20,000, exempting six million people from having to pay income tax. The party would also scrap VAT on energy bills, lift the VAT threshold on businesses to £150,000, cut fuel duty and corporation tax, and raise the inheritance tax threshold to £2 million.

On energy, the party proposes scrapping the UK's 2050 net zero targets and green levies to bring down energy bills, while fast-tracking North Sea oil and gas licences, and doing more to enable fracking.

Culture war issues also featured prominently in Reform's offer to Red Wall voters. Farage placed "issues and arguments around gender on the very first page" of his party's election manifesto, said The Guardian, condemning the "divisive 'woke' ideology" he claimed had captured public institutions. The party has vowed to ban the teaching of "transgender ideology" in schools and scrap diversity, equality and inclusion rules.

Reform's manifesto promised a referendum on the current voting system and in what Politico said is "another pledge that brings Farage's party in line with many of the left", it also called for the unelected House of Lords to be replaced with a "much smaller, more democratic second chamber".

What is Reform's strategy to win power?

Since assuming the leadership of Reform in the summer, Farage has made no secret of his plan to usurp the Conservatives as the main opposition party to Labour with the "real ambition" to win power at the next general election in 2029.

Reform claims to be "Britain's fastest growing political party" and has released a "live membership tracker" that shows how it is close to overtaking the Conservative party's 131,680 card-carrying members.

The party is now just a few points behind Labour and the Conservatives nationally, according to Sky News polling, "but with a general election still four years away, its challenge is holding on to that momentum".

It is just the latest boost in what has been a "pretty good year" for Reform in general and Farage in particular, said The Spectator.

"At the beginning of 2024, he was out of politics and fresh out of the jungle, having returned from 'I'm A Celeb…' with no imminent plans of a comeback. Now, fast forward 12 months, he is an MP, party leader and beating Keir Starmer as a more popular choice of PM."

Reform has "been buoyed in recent weeks by a series of high-profile Tory defections" and "hopes to win hundreds of council seats at local elections in May, and at least one mayoralty", said the FT.

With longstanding ally Donald Trump soon to be back in the White House and Musk potentially backing them to the tune of tens of millions of pounds, Farage's 2029 electoral ambitions are starting to seem not so far-fetched.