Reform exodus continues in professionalisation drive

The ravens really are leaving the tower. In recent months, Reform has been turbo-charging its professionalisation drive, working to set up branches across the country as part of their efforts to elect enough MPs to form the next government. There’s been a big back office clear-out and tonight it sounds like there has been another casualty: this time one of the fledgling party’s best-known faces.

Gawain Towler – the last great amateur in British politics – has been fired from Reform after two decades spinning for its previous iterations Ukip and the Brexit party. Towler is a long-standing veteran of the Eurosceptic movement and is a familiar face to anyone who has attended one of Nigel Farage’s colourful press conferences over the years. Good luck to the lucky person who has to fill his shoes…

The reforms come as new chairman Zia Yusuf seeks to ‘professionalise’ an operation perhaps best known for its somewhat-less-than professional past.