Stung by repeated accusations – not least from former deputy leader Ben Habib, and indeed Searchlight – that Reform UK was not in any normal sense a political party, despotic leader Nigel Farage eventually issued a promise to democratise the organisation and put power in the hands of its claimed 200,000 ‘members’ (not that it really has any).
Finally, this week, Farage (so plainly on his own little planet that some refer to him as ‘Nigel from Rigel’) unveiled Reform’s new, improved structure – and we’re struggling to identify anything in the slightest bit democratic about it.
Reform was not set up as a party but a business
Let us explain the problem that Führage is supposed to be curing. Despite the fact that the Electoral Commission allows it to be seen as one, Reform was not set up as a party but a business: The Brexit Party Limited. It was registered in 2018 by Catherine Blaiklock, who issued herself with its one and only £1 share. She was, unsurprisingly, also the only director. So the ‘party’ consisted of just Blaiklock and a quid.
After about five months of fiddling about with addresses and giving the organisation an official purpose (in essence, to campaign to get out of the EU), Blaiklock effectively just handed the company over to Farage and a mutating list of cronies, including Richard Tice.
Fly-by-night
Perhaps feeling that a company capitalised to just £1 looked a bit fly-by-night, the Farage gang upped this to a much heftier £5 and eventually £15. Farage allocated himself eight of these shares, meaning that he could win any vote even if all of his fellow directors disagreed with him.
It was basically in this shape that The Brexit Party contested elections – not as a proper party with members in a voting structure but a company with four shareholders and controlled by just one of the four, Nigel Farage. Those punters who got the impression that they were members of a party weren’t that at all. They were merely donors.
And so it has gone on. Reform is not a new organisation; it is the same tacky £15 company with a registered name change to Reform UK Party Limited. It arrived at a five-seat contingent in the House of Commons after last July’s general election still having no actual party members, and with complete control vested in Farage’s eight votes.
Former friends and forever enemies
After a lot of comments about this from Farage’s former friends and forever enemies, he promised to turn the whole thing into a democracy of some sort, and this week we finally found out what the revolutionary structural changes were. And those have left most observers scratching their heads.
All of RUPL’s movers and shakers have surrendered their £15 worth of shares, and these have gone to a new home, Reform 2025 Ltd, which is now named as a “person of significant control” on RUPL’s register. Except, of course, that it isn’t a ‘person’ but a new company. It is registered at the same address as RUPL and consists of just two officers: Nigel Farage and Muhammad ‘Zia’ Yusuf.
Where democracy is supposed to be breaking out in all this jiggery-pokery is anyone’s guess.
Where democracy is supposed to be breaking out in all this jiggery-pokery is anyone’s guess. As far as we can work out, all that has really happened here is that Richard Tice has swapped his five (33%) shares in RUPL for, well, bugger all. He remains an officer or director of Reform UK Party Limited (Farage is the only other one left) but has no real influence, because ‘2025’ (ie Farage and Yusuf) owns his ass.
There are mutterings among the Bloaters that Tice is becoming something of an embarrassment or even liability, so perhaps this restructuring is really about sidelining him while Nigel takes another crack at persuading Elon Musk to become the party’s new sugar daddy. Whatever it really is about, it’s hard to discern any advance towards party democracy.
