A year ago, Reform party aides found themselves in a cramped office in Victoria, London, bickering about chairs. ‘There weren’t enough seats to go around,’ recalls a staffer. These days there are no such issues. Leading in the polls and with five MPs in tow, Nigel Farage’s party has moved to Westminster’s Millbank Tower. This 1960s block peering over the Thames is where Tony Blair’s landslide victories were fought for and won; the new tenants are intent on dismantling most of his legacy as they plot a path to 10 Downing Street.
Look at any opinion survey and Reform is hard to dismiss. Having won 14 per cent of the vote in last year’s general election, the party consistently leads in the polls. When his supporters said last year that Farage would be the next prime minister, Westminster sniggered. Now, few establishment figures are laughing. ‘All we do is win,’ says an upbeat young aide. The party could come top in Cardiff Bay next year and finish third in Scotland. ‘Everyone is scrambling over themselves to do Wales,’ says another aide.
Its journey to power might start at Millbank Tower. The walls are covered with Reform banners and the slogan ‘Family, Community, Country’. Farage and party chairman Zia Yusuf have private offices, with around 40 desks for staff yet to be filled. Yusuf, a multi-millionaire businessman, has been charged with running the new operation. ‘He could have spent the rest of his life on a beach in Saint-Tropez after selling [his business], but decided to work 18-hour days for free to turn Reform into a winning machine,’ says a colleague.
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