Is Reform ready for government?

Hundreds of businesses, two former Tory ministers and one in five of the nation's lobbyists are expected to join an estimated 12,000 supporters at this weekend's Reform UK conference.

The gathering is the moment to "build to being the Party of Government", said Reform chairman David Bull on X.

What did the commentators say?

The conference is where Reform will try to "pivot away from protest" and "towards providing a genuine alternative" to Labour and the Conservatives, said Tony Diver in The Telegraph.

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Party leader Nigel Farage has been "forced to admit" Reform doesn't yet have answers on all political issues, so its staff has been "taking soundings from businesses and think tank wonks" to "form a more comprehensive policy platform".

With just four MPs in the Commons, the party strategy is to use the conference to "develop other voices" in its ranks and "familiarise the public with them", as well as trying to avoid "endless rows" between its politicians.

Top brands "from Heathrow to TikTok and JCB" are expected to show up "to get a taste of the political atmosphere" around the party currently topping the polls, said The Guardian, and Farage "hopes to present a more professional image".

A sign of how the political landscape has "shifted" is that his party is "no longer on the fringe", with Michael Gove and Jacob Rees-Mogg planning to attend.

It is Farage's "grandest conference yet", said Politico's London Playbook, and he'll "paint himself as the prime minister-in-waiting in his big speech". Everything is "designed to broadcast" how this is a "proper party" rather than "just a band of disaffected gripers".

He'll tell members they "must be ready to run for government in as little as 18 months" and while this "may sound outlandish", Labour is "doing little to dampen his ability to make such claims".

Reform has been regularly criticised over the "unrealistic nature" of its spending plans, and "tendency to inflame rather than unite the country", said a leader in The Times. The conference provides a stage for it to try to "pivot from a party of protest to one of potential government".

At the "heart" of the party's "success" is a "fundamental realignment" of its preference of Brexit supporters, said Sir John Curtice on the BBC, but whether it can "reach out beyond the ranks of socially conservative Britain" could be essential if the party is "eventually to succeed in its bid for power".

What next?

Polling shows a mixed picture for Reform's prospect of government. Although it leads comfortably in overall national polls, researchers from Merlin Strategies found that 46% of Brits think it isn’t yet ready to lead the country, compared with 39% who think it is. Some 41% think Farage looks like a PM-in-waiting, compared with 45% who don't.

But even as it bids for respectability, Reform hasn't quite given up its tendency for fireworks. The party's "rivals" fear its "glitz and political noise are going to be hard to beat", said The Guardian after an insider told it "we're the only party conference to have our own pyrotechnics budget".