Tory defectors vs the originals: Inside the power struggle splitting Reform

Reform UK should be on a high.

Nigel Farage’s party hoovered up council seats in England and made giant leaps forward in Wales and Scotland in last month’s local and devolved elections.

Reform is also fighting a by-election in Makerfield in a bid to gain a ninth MP and deal a body-blow to Labour by defeating the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, who is widely expected to challenge for No 10 if he returns to Parliament.

And yet, this week, several fractures emerged in Farage’s formidable election-winning machine.

Questions have once again been asked about Reform’s vetting operation after a litany of historic embarrassing comments were unearthed from the party’s Makerfield candidate, plumber Robert Kenyon.

A non-exhaustive list of Kenyon’s apparent social media back catalogue includes describing himself as “sexist”, making a lewd reference to Carol Vorderman, claiming women use abortions for “vanity purposes” and suggesting Russia was “within their rights” to annex Crimea.

At the same time, Farage is under pressure over a controversial £5m gift he received from a crypto-billionaire, and Reform has found itself in the novel and uncomfortable position of contending with an insurgent party to its right in the form of Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain.

But most worrying for some figures in the party is the fact that tensions between two of Reform’s key players seem to be spilling out into the open.

On Tuesday, Reform’s home affairs spokesman, Zia Yusuf, appeared to publicly slap down his colleague Robert Jenrick.

After Jenrick, the former Tory Cabinet minister who is now Reform’s Treasury spokesman, explained the party’s deportation policy in an interview, Yusuf brusquely contradicted him on social media. “Robert’s answer is not Reform policy,” he posted on X. “As the person responsible for our deportation plan I want [to] ensure people know where we stand.”

‘Yusuf is not keen on Tory defectors’

In recent months, Reform’s top team have presented a remarkably united front, with the party’s electoral success and the devotion which Farage inspires among members combining to prevent almost any discord.

That is why Yusuf’s intervention has rung alarm bells for some in the party. A senior Reform source said: “I don’t think anything that Kenyon has said is particularly damaging. I do think that every time that Zia pops his head up on social media and has a go at a colleague, it is unhelpful. I really do wish that he would stop doing that.”

“The fact is that Zia is not very keen on people who switch from the Conservative Party,” the source added. “That’s a kind of fundamental mistake – the only way that parties grow is if they poach people from other parties, otherwise nothing would change.”

They claimed there was “no doubt” a “personal animosity there towards Jenrick” and suggested Yusuf’s attack was partly motivated by “a bit of jealousy”.

“From his perspective, he sees Robert turning up and within a matter of weeks he’s appointed shadow chancellor, which of course he would love himself,” they said.

The worry for some in Reform is that Yusuf’s pugnacious and occasionally unpredictable style could hinder the party’s quest for government.

‘Shooting from the hip doesn’t really help’

The senior source pointed back to an episode last summer when Yusuf dramatically resigned as party chairman, saying it was no longer a “good use of my time”, only to return to Reform two days later.

“I’m finding it hard to understand what prompts that behaviour really,” the source said.

“[Yusuf] is an extremely able man, there is no question about it. He is a great communicator… it’s just that he doesn’t seem to understand that there’s a time and a place to say anything – usually it’s not on social media.

“This shooting from the hip stuff doesn’t really help.”

The i Paper contacted Yusuf for comment, but did not receive a response.

Reform’s high command is unsurprisingly keen to avoid any sort of escalation between Yusuf and Jenrick. A Jenrick ally suggested the pair were on the same page. A source in Reform HQ, meanwhile, tried to laugh off the spat. “Zia just hates Tories. He might have got mixed up on that day,” they said. “Him and Rob are fine.”

Reform unconcerned over Makerfield candidate’s social media history

On the party’s other tribulations, Reform figures seem unconcerned by the controversy over Kenyon’s social media history. Reform prides itself on being less squeamish about politically incorrect or even offensive speech than other parties. A party spokesperson borrowed a line from Donald Trump’s playbook by dismissing the comments as “locker room banter” dredged up as part of an “establishment hit job” on Kenyon.

The party is also battening down the hatches when it comes to the £5m gift from Thailand-based crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne. Farage says the money was to pay for his lifetime security and had nothing to do with politics, but he is currently being investigated by Parliament’s standards watchdog, with Commons rules stating that MPs must declare within one month any “personal benefit” they received in the 12 months before taking office – something Farage didn’t do.

The saga over the £5m took on a further twist when Reform sensationally claimed that the information about the money was leaked by a cyber-attack “almost certainly linked to Moscow”. Reform says the matter has been “reported to the relevant authorities” – without clarifying who – but a clearly unconvinced Labour Party wrote to the National Cyber Security Centre and the Metropolitan Police on Friday asking them to independently investigate the alleged breach.

Restore party dismissed as a ‘cheap carbon copy of Reform’

When it comes to Restore Britain, Reform insiders are split on how much of a threat Lowe’s party represents. Restore certainly provokes strong reactions from the Reform Party faithful. Lowe used to be a Reform MP until he was ejected from the party following claims of bullying, which he denies. Many of the activists in his new hard-right party – which has been promoted by Elon Musk on X – are also former Reform members who quit Farage’s party or were kicked out. It has created considerable bad blood. A Reform local government leader fumed: “[Restore] really are just a cheap carbon copy of everything that Reform says and does. They’ve not actually come up with a single original thought, word or deed.”

Restore is fielding a candidate in Makerfield, Rebecca Shepherd, and some in Reform worry that she could strip crucial votes from Kenyon, which will allow Burnham to get over the line. The senior Reform source who was critical of Yusuf said that Musk’s decision to back Restore could be “catastrophic” to the “cause of the right in this country”.

“In a close election, nibbling away at the margins of the Reform vote could cause problems,” they said.

A poll by Survation of just over 500 adults in Makerfield put Restore on 7 per cent – larger than the gap between Labour, on 43 per cent, and Reform’s 40 per cent. Reform HQ insists they are supremely unworried by Restore. The HQ source said of Restore’s support in Makerfield: “It’s just not real.” According to the source, of the 1,200 Makerfield households that Reform campaigners canvassed on Thursday, just 11 said they were planning to vote for Restore. The source also claimed that large-sample polling, which Reform has undertaken in the constituency, refutes Survation’s figure.

While a few cracks may be showing in Reform, its difficulties shouldn’t be overstated. Sir Keir Starmer’s party is hardly a bed of roses. Indeed, Sir Tony Blair’s explosive essay this week claiming that Labour has “no coherent plan” for the country both underlined the Government’s problems and kicked off a renewed bout of leadership positioning, with Starmer, Wes Streeting and Burnham all penning responses. In his offering, the Prime Minister gave no indication of willingly surrendering No 10 to his rivals, insisting that he had “more to do”, including responding to the stark report on youth unemployment, which was published by Alan Milburn this week. There could yet be a Labour civil war, which makes the tensions in Reform look trivial.

So much in UK politics seems to hinge on what happens in Makerfield next month. Whenever there has previously been talk of Reform having “peaked”, Farage has been able to dispel it by winning at the ballot box. The same will apply if Reform prevails in this contest. And whatever the result on June 18, it will surely bring the current phoney war surrounding the Labour leadership to a head – one way or the other.