As the establishment, BBC and even the Daily Mail turn on Reform UK, how Nigel Farage and Richard Tice believe there is a historic chance to reshape the British right
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Inspired by House Inhabit, I intend to provide real, on the ground campaign coverage you can trust ahead of the most consequential British and American elections in modern history. Today that starts with a dispatch about what’s REALLY going on within the surging Reform UK…
The corrupt mainstream media is already willing Reform UK to fail.
The British Bashing Corporation and the Daily Mail have both attempted to smear the former Brexit Party as “far right” and now the Ofcommunists are targeting Nigel Farage’s role as honorary president of the party to force him out as the top rating presenter on GB News.
The establishment media clearly wants to pretend Reform’s astonishing surge, which could see them challenge the dying Conservative party under Fishy Rishi Sunak, isn’t happening, relegating them to a fringe party that doesn’t deserve coverage, even though they are now clearly the UK’s third biggest party.
So how are Farage, leader Richard Tice and the party’s first MP, the man I nicknamed the “Red Wall rottweiler” Lee Anderson, going to cope with this onslaught and deal with the consistent questions of whether Nigel will return to the frontline fray? I have been investigating…
WILL THE OFCOMMUNISTS FORCE NIGEL TO STAND DOWN?
After forcing me out of GB News in a free speech row, the Ofcommunist UK government media regulator is about to launch a sustained attack on Nigel Farage, claiming his role as honorary president of Reform UK makes it impossible for him to host a nightly news show.
Tice has already been told he is unable to be a presenter on GB News, given they are so paranoid about Ofcom’s threats.
Both Tice and Farage have accepted that Farage will likely have to relinquish the role of honorary president if Ofcom rules against GB News, although they believe such a decision is ridiculous, given it’s a title with no executive powers (Farage signed those rights away on March 5 2021 in a written agreement with Tice that was later announced to members, stating he would have no active role and no fiduciary duties).
Such a position seems absurd given Labour activist Ed Balls – the husband of the future Home Secretary – presents alongside the equally pro-Labour Susanna Reid on Good Morning Britain and there has been no investigation about Labour’s shadow foreign secretary David Lammy hosting a weekly news show on the Labour Broadcasting Company formerly known as LBC.
Farage is ready for a major fight with Ofcom, insisting their investigation is flawed because, unlike his colleague Jacob Rees Mogg, he isn’t a serving politician elected under a party banner.
I’d wager the radical leftists at Ofcom aren’t stupid enough to pick a public battle with Farage, but even if they do, he will simply lose the honorary title until the election.
As a senior Reform figure tells me: “The truth is that even if Nigel came back as the doorman, it would still be known as Farage’s Reform party.”
WHEN COULD NIGEL ENTER THE FIGHT?
The tough stance being taken by the Ofcommunists means that if Farage does return to the fold it won’t come until relatively late into the campaign, meaning he would potentially only have to stop presenting his eponymous show for the six week purdah campaign period, where broadcasters are severely limited in how they cover the election.
Nigel has made it clear he thinks the Sunday Express front page at the weekend declaring he would be returning to the political frontline was irresponsible. He knows everyone wants his bombastic personality to be injected into what is going to be a very dull campaign if it’s Sunak versus Starmer, but he genuinely hasn’t made that call yet.
That said, Reform UK’s surge in the polling has certainly made the prospect more likely. If the party was polling at six, seven or eight per cent, he wouldn’t even be thinking about it.
But there is the potential for a life-changing, legacy securing moment for Nigel, just like what was achieved by Reform in Canada in 1993 when they went from a populist movement to the biggest conservative party in that country’s parliament.
Unlike any other political party leader, Tice is actively encouraging Farage to return to the fold, even though some of the businessman’s allies believe the will he/won’t he speculation is undermining the incredible work he has done to take the party to where it is at today.
Indeed, Tice has made it clear he hopes that Farage sees this as a moment of revolution. He wants Farage to try and be elected as an MP so he can be at the complete centre of the realignment of UK politics on the right.
Tice has used the line that the party is not obsessed about titles, but about saving Britain, because that’s how bad things have become.
But in reality, he knows that if Farage wants to return as leader, it’s a no brainer; Richard would happily become Chairman again and is relaxed about doing so.
The two big questions Tice is asking of Farage is how much time he could commit to the campaign and would he want to stand in a constituency, most likely Clacton.
For his part, Farage believes the small boats issue and debanking scandal proves he can set the national news agenda without having an active political role.
He will not fight the campaign for the sake of it and has no interest in getting five million votes and three seats, while coming second in hundreds of others.
He’s done that before with UKIP, after all. If he thinks there is a historic opportunity to realign the centre right and break the thing apart in a historic way then he will do it.
But at the moment, he still thinks the jury is out on that.
WHY HAVE THE MAIL AND BBC TURNED ON REFORM UK NOW?
The media don’t want to make it easy for Reform UK.
While the BBC swiftly apologised for a Sunday night article describing the party as “far right”, it’s Associated Newspaper Group that is posing a surprise enemy via the pages of the Daily Mail.
They have clearly mandated their journalists, columnists and comedians to viciously attack Tice on behalf of the Tories.
There have been numerous examples of this over the past week.
The MailOnline described Reform UK as “far right”; a comic sketch showed a Reform UK canvasser knocking on the door of an ethnic minority, telling them: If you don’t vote for Reform UK, I’m going to have you deported; and star columnist Sarah Vine described Tice as “irritating, smug and divisive”.
But angered Tice most was the influential Mail on Sunday columnist Dan Hodges wrote that the party is campaigning aggressively on race. Tice refutes that strongly, insisting the party is campaigning strongly against migration but not race.
Tice had been warned by two senior insiders at the Mail that the newspaper was going to “come for him at some point”.
With the poll surge happening that attack is now on.
Farage expected this from the Mail at the behest of the Tories and has told allies it’s the usual insider business about media figures trying to earn knighthoods
WILL TICE DEBATE FISHY SUNAK AND SLIPPERY STARMER?
Behind-the-scenes broadcasters are already lobbying to host a leaders’ debate, with GB News particularly keen to secure one during their first general election cycle.
Reform UK expects to feature in all the debates given how they are now polling, although there has been no confirmation the broadcasters will agree to that.
It has, however, just been confirmed that Reform UK will get a party political broadcast for the local elections.
There are also plans to increase the role publicly of joint deputy leader Ben Habib, who is diverse and a great speaker.
Richard is not precious about any of that stuff; he genuinely just wants the most votes possible. If only other party leaders had such a lack of ego.
COULD REFORM FORCE THE TORIES TO STAND DOWN IN TARGET SEATS?
In some polls, Reform UK is now securing nearly double the support of the Lib Dems.
Tice is convinced that within the next four weeks, the party will hit 15 per cent nationally, in part because of the defection of Lee Anderson.
Meanwhile, Farage is expecting the Anderson effect to see the party overtake the Tories in the North East (they’ve already been tying the party at 17 per cent in some polls).
Tice predicts that by the summer the party will be polling higher or equally than the Conservatives, which would be a seismic moment.
He has developed a PR-grabbing plan where he will publicly call on the Tories to stand down in seats where they are splitting the vote to stop high profile Reform candidates from winning.
WILL TRUMP BECOME A FACTOR?
Farage is treated like royalty in Trump World – he’s a genuine MAGA superstar because he put his head above the parapet in the summer of 2016 after his Brexit victory in favour of Trump and he has never wavered in his support of The Donald.
Farage knows he could stay in Palm Beach and make a fortune, and, while that is a tempting prospect, he doesn’t intend to leave the UK.
But he does want to be part of the Trump campaign and possibly his second administration, too. The problem is that the UK and US campaigns are going to be at the same time.
A senior Reform UK source explains: “You can understand that this is a conundrum for Nigel. In the nicest possible way, what would you rather: A call from Mrs Smith in Clacton complaining about the potholes or a call from the President of the United States saying can you be our special envoy?”
For what it’s worth, Farage thinks Tice is doing a very good job and, either way, Reform will be a vital part of what happens to the centre-right after the election because Labour will be a disaster.
But with the Tories imploding, there might only be one opportunity for Farage to reimagine the British right: For the sake of the country he loves, he may not have a choice but to enter the fray.
Luckily you don’t have to rely on the MSM for reliable reporting about this campaign because the alternative media is exploding.
Reform needs more Tory MPs to defect. They have nothing to lose if things don't change. If only Braverman would lead the charge it would make such a difference.
The mainstream media have proved time and time again that they cannot be trusted. They do not care for the truth, all they care about is ruining people's lives by hounding and bullying, and they gaslight the general public into believing any old rubbish, so long as it sells papers or gets them clicks.