Reform in secret talks with civil servants to prepare Farage for power ...Middle East

It famously took Nigel Farage eight attempts to become an MP. The leader of Reform UK was always considered an effective campaigner – but not someone the electorate necessarily took seriously as a parliamentarian.

All that has changed. As Labour struggles over its asylum policies – figures released on Thursday showed a record 111,000 claims from asylum seekers in its first year – and Kemi Badenoch failing to make inroads for the Tories, it is Reform that is leading in the polls.

And, with pollsters saying Reform could attract even bigger numbers, Nigel Farage’s dreams of becoming the UK’s next prime minister no longer seem so fanciful.

Reform may only have four MPs, but it came second in 98 seats, 89 of which were won by Labour, controls ten councils, has two directly elected mayors, and picked up a by-election win in May, taking the Runcorn and Helsby seat from Labour.

The party still has several vulnerabilities, however, which could hole it below the waterline. Chief among them is Reform’s lack of government experience and a broad policy platform. Of the five MPs elected at the general election last year, it has already lost two – Rupert Lowe and James McMurdock now sit as independents.

To address the deficiency, Farage has recruited a roster of ex-public servants to advise him on policy.

Reform insiders also say they are holding secret talks with sympathetic civil servants to anticipate the traps which they claim “the establishment state” will deploy against them if they ever get into power.

As well as helping the party prepare for government, pollsters believe that if Farage can successfully professionalise his outfit, it could push Reform’s potential polling “ceiling” from its current level of about 30 per cent to above 40 per cent.

While Reform won a slew of councils in May, the party is short of government experience and still light on policy in many areas.

To beef up its policymaking credentials, several Reform-sympathetic think-tanks have sprung into life, such as the Centre for a Better Britain, which launches next month and will be led by the party’s former chief operating office, Jonathan Brown.

Another way the party is seeking to tool up is by recruiting ex-public servants. First there was Colin Sutton – the former detective who caught the serial killer Levi Bellfield – who was unveiled as an adviser on crime and policing.

Next followed Vanessa Frake, an ex-governor of HMP Wormwood Scrubs, who joined to advise on prisons.

Reform has also acquired a former CPS prosecutor in the form of Laila Cunningham, a councillor in Westminster who defected to the party from the Conservatives.

It is possible that some of these figures could end up in a Reform government – Farage has spoken repeatedly about his desire to appoint experts from outside the House of Commons as cabinet ministers. Appointments to the House of Lords would provide him with the means to do so.

How to deal with the ‘Blob’

If he did want to use MPs, then big names from outside politics could be parachuted into winnable seats at the next election, The i Paper has been told.

However, the party is not just courting people who have left public service. Reform sources say they are talking to current civil servants to help them prepare.

A party insider told The i Paper they were speaking to three officials in three different Whitehall departments. Senior officials, though not the very “top of the tree,” they said.

The message from the officials – so the insider said – was: “We’re on your side, but obviously we can’t do anything, because we’ve got these jobs. But can we help?”

Specifically, the officials have offered to assist “in learning how to deal with the Blob” – the pejorative term originally coined by Michael Gove to refer to the UK’s education establishment, but which has since been widened to include civil servants who are accused of stymieing change.

Reform are convinced that if they do get into power they will face obstruction from officials, government lawyers and quangos. The Reform insider said: “We expect that, of course we do, we’re not thick.

“At every level, the institutions of the establishment state will be railed against us… we are aware of that.

“Every piece of legislation we put in, some jumped-up piece of taxpayer-funded lobby group is going to put in a judicial review.”

Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA union for civil servants, said that given there were about half a million people in the civil service, inevitably there would be some who would sympathise with Reform as with other political parties.

But he said that civil servants took seriously rules prohibiting them from taking part in political activities.

“There are clear political restrictions. There are restrictions in relation to what political activity you do based on what you do and how senior you are.

“Civil servants take it very seriously, because it has very serious consequences for those who don’t.”

However, like all prime ministers, at some point before the next election Sir Keir Starmer will have to allow formal “access talks” between the civil service and opposition parties aimed at preparing them for a potential change in government.

Penman said: “At some point Starmer is going to have to authorise contact pre-election with the civil service. The civil service at that point will be engaging with all the political parties, but will clearly be thinking about who looks likely to form a government, because they’ve got to think and prepare for what that looks like”.

Lack of experience still an issue for voters

As well as helping Reform to come up with a plan for government, strengthening the party’s policymaking experience brings other benefits.

Sophie Stowers, research manager at the More in Common think-tank, said that Reform’s lack of experience was still an issue for many voters.

“For those who have already made the leap to supporting Reform, it’s less of a concern,” she said.

“For those who have moved over from Labour or the Conservatives quite recently, it is on the list of worries. But I think it’s important to remember that for that group of voters, in their heads, their view is they’ve already given all the kind of professional guys a go. They’ve been let down by them, so why not give the scrappy upstart a go and see what happens?

“Who I think it’s really important for is who we call ‘Reform considerers’. They are people who, when we ask, say they’re open to voting for Reform, but they’ve not quite made that jump yet.

“For them, the professionalisation of the party ranks quite highly as a concern.

“They’re very sceptical of whether Reform would meet any of its promises in government that it’s made so far. And so for that group, it really is an off-putter.”

Stowers said that voters in this group were aware of some of the controversies which had bedevilled Reform, like the two MPs who have crashed out of the party.

But she said the issue of professionalism went beyond these personnel matters to the question of whether Reform has a “policy platform that goes beyond immigration, essentially”.

“It is spelling out, what is your policy on the NHS, on tax and spend, on transport and things like that… people generally don’t tend to know much more than the stop the boats stuff”.

Stowers said that Farage needs to win round these ‘Reform considerers’ if he wants to achieve his “maximum ceiling of support”.

“Without that group, they won’t expand that far at all”, she said. “That is a real barrier to their growth.”

If Farage pulls it off, the prize could be huge. “In our polling they’re about 30 per cent at the minute”, Stowers said. “We think that could go to about 43 per cent, if everyone who says they’re open to voting for them eventually does.”

However, Farage’s attempt to co-opt former public servants is not without its own risks. For one, bringing people from outside politics into the fold creates the potential for tensions and going off-message.

For example, the Tories have seized on comments from Frake, the former prison governor, that some transwomen should be imprisoned in women’s jails – a stance which Reform have belatedly tried to distance themselves from.

Appointing ex-public servants as Reform advisers also raises the prospect of a shopping list of demands which Farage may struggle to accommodate.

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Reform say that all the work they are doing reflects how seriously they are taking the idea that in a few years’ time they could really be in power.

The insider said: “There is a very strong feeling amongst Reformers and our supporters that if not now, then when?

“We recognise we just can’t afford to screw it up. Because if we do, then what price democracy when the country has given up on the main parties and they’re giving us a chance?

“We know we cannot afford to f**k it up, because if we do, what happens next?”

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