Gen Z are flocking to Reform. They’ll regret it ...Middle East

Union jacks are everywhere. People are wearing them on their hats, jackets and waistcoats. They fly from the top of a green tractor adorned with a sign that says: “RIP Farmers: ABOLISH THE DEATH TAX”.

Pints are flowing at the bar. And then there is a stall with bright lights and images of Nigel Farage pointing at the camera underneath the words: “Protect your wealth in uncertain times”. It’s an advert for a company which sells “tax-free gold” to investors, and former commodities trader Farage is promoting them.

It’s Reform UK’s first party conference since they won control of 10 English councils in one fell swoop in May this year. The mood here in Birmingham is confident and celebratory, even though Reform’s attempts to woo big business seem to have faltered; in stark contrast to recent Labour or Tory party conferences, major British businesses seem to have steered clear of the NEC in a bid to avoid being seen to have given Reform their unconditional support.

In the absence of corporate chief executives, however, there is an abundance of young faces in the crowd. At just 19, George Finch is Reform’s youngest council leader, heading up Warwickshire County Council and a £2bn budget. A young colleague over in County Durham, 22-year-old councillor Saffron Sims-Brydon, stands by a food truck. She’s here to “feel the energy” but says that she joined Reform for one reason: “aspiration”. Only Reform, she says, gives young people “hope”.

‘In Reform it gives us a fresh start’… With Reform polling strongly with Gen Z, we went to the Reform UK conference in Birmingham to find out what policies they actually have to offer young people.

Saffron has just finished university and moved back home with her parents. “I don’t know when I’ll be able to move back out again,” she says. Unlike Labour, Saffron says, Reform “gives young people opportunities” and “a voice”. The policy she’s most excited about is “the increase of personal tax allowances to £20,000” because it would mean that young people and families have more money.

Farage has made much of Reform’s “TikTok awakening” and appeal to young people. Though some studies cast doubt on whether it will turn into votes, analysis has shown that more voters under 30 backed Reform than the Conservatives in last year’s general election. Other polls have found that Reform could be in second place behind Labour among younger voters, particularly young men, and voting intention polling data from More in Common suggested that younger people are increasingly open to supporting the party.

Yet look at the detail of Reform’s policies, too, and there is much aimed at parents and older voters but little for, say, anyone trying to buy their first home. In the party’s “contract” with voters before last summer’s election, ideas like scrapping interest on student loans and introducing shorter two-year courses were about as far as things went. On stage in Birmingham the big talking points were small boats, free speech and scrapping net-zero pledges – yet a YouGov poll this year found that 72 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds backed net zero.

Are the ambitious young people excitedly extolling their support for Farage being neglected by a party that, ultimately, does not have their interests at heart?

Councillor Cameron Anderson, 20, is the group leader for Reform at Buckinghamshire Council. He says he defected from the Conservatives because Reform symbolises “hope”, and, like Saffron, cites their “flagship policy” of increasing the personal tax allowance to £20,000 as a major reason for his decision.

“This would help students and young people who work as bartenders, waiters or stacking shelves,” he says. “I worked in hospitality from the age of 16… these are bad places to work under the tax threshold at the moment, but Reform is offering a future… a tax system and economic environment for young people to go into, to succeed and to prosper.”

Increasing the personal tax allowance might help young people out in the short-term, but at what long-term cost? The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has warned that this policy could cost somewhere between £50bn and £80bn a year, which would need to be recouped elsewhere. Given that Reform also wants to cut corporation tax, it is difficult to see how they would balance this and keep public services running.

Cameron is also still living with his parents even though he “would like” to move out. He’s not alone. In the last two decades, the proportion of 25- to 34-year-olds still living with their parents has increased by more than a third.

One way to close the gap would be to create a new government-backed homeownership programme, like Help to Buy, which is aimed specifically at young adults without generational wealth. Another would be to build more truly affordable social housing, fast and at scale.

However, what’s for certain is that axeing inheritance tax, full stop, would leave a hole in the Treasury’s annual income and privilege those young people who have wealthier families by giving them a tax break. Yet at a Countryside Alliance drinks reception, Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice tells the room that the party would “scrap all inheritance tax”.

As things stand, inheritance tax is one way for central government to capture the wealth that many people have managed to accrue as a result of the epic house price inflation Britain has experienced for the greater part of the last 30 years.

Scrapping it could mean that young people’s fortunes are even more heavily defined by how wealthy their parents are. Those whose parents had expensive homes to pass on would have more money to spend on housing than those without wealthy families. With no inheritance tax, Britain could become even more of an inheritocracy than a meritocracy. And as inheritance tax receipts hit £8.2bn in 2024-25, it would likely mean more cuts too.

These details aren’t enough to dampen young Reformers’ enthusiasm. Samuel Hussey, who’s also 20, is Reform’s secretary in South Staffordshire and hopes to stand as a councillor next year. Throughout his teens Samuel says he was “a radical leftist as many people in Gen Z are” because he dreamed of “a nice utopia where everyone is equal”. But then it became clear to him that other political parties had “backstabbed the British people”.

Samuel hopes to stand as a councillor in Dudley and thinks “potholes” are probably one of the biggest financial burdens local councils face. When I ask him what he thinks about other issues, such as the cost of rising homelessness across the country, he says: “Obviously I don’t have the experience because this is what Reform is. We aren’t a party of career politicians, I’m not a career politician.”

square IAN BIRRELL

Inside Reform's conference: It was worse than I thought

If elected, however, Samuel says he would look to cut “wasteful spending” so that Reform can “provide the youth with affordable housing”.

These young people, working away from their bedrooms in their family homes, may not be career politicians yet. But the upper echelons of their party are filling up with them. In a bid to seem like a credible proposition to voters, Farage has welcomed the likes of former Conservative MP Nadine Dorries into the Reform fold, amid much fanfare. Tory big beast Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg has also been spotted stalking the NEC’s halls.

As some members geared up for the evening’s glamorous £25-a-ticket afterparty, it looked like a disconnect could be emerging. There is a gulf between the Reform’s leadership and the party’s youngest members.

Those young people have helped them gain a foothold in local councils, putting their faith, their reputations, their ambition and their early adult lives on the line. Their elders, meanwhile, buy gold in case of emergency.

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