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Party conferences are supposed to have a certain buzz. The queues, the chatter, activists handing out leaflets, journalists rushing between talks and speeches while trying to file their copy. The Reform conference, in Birmingham’s NEC, began on a quieter note. On the first day, the place was almost empty and had an eerie feel to it – as if I’d arrived at the tail end of the event. Click here for the latest on Greater Manchester's politics in our newsletter But that’s because it was reserved for business delegates, who had paid £500 for the privilege. Those who wanted more atmosphere might have been tempted to go to the Peppa Pig Space Adventure or the Tutankhamun Experience, which were happening in the same vicinity. Getting into the main room, decorated with (what else) turquoise carpets, delegates were greeted with a Labour ‘inconvenience store, with lots of 'nanny state' warnings. On the banner was an AI image of Prime Minister Andy Burnham . Elsewhere there were turquoise buses, a Union Jack taxi, a pub on a vintage double decker bus, as well as some food and drink stalls. All of which set us back a fair bit. A coffee and cookie set me back more than £8. Never mind the cost of living crisis. There was a stand where people could write tributes to the late Ann Widdecombe, opposite a helicopter simulator. Taylor Swift and Shakira were blaring from speakers. What happened to Rage Against The Machine? Last year, Nigel Farage brought out Marlon and Jackie, the surviving members of the Jackson 5 to perform during the after-hour party. Rumour had it that Boney M was performing this year. Robert Jenrick, the party’s treasury spokesperson, announced on day one that Reform will cut state spending by £80bn a year by the end of its first term in power. The party claimed it had laid out £50bn in annual savings from welfare reform. “We’ll be the party of working people, not of Benefits Street”, said Mr Jenrick. “But we’re not for the super rich either. Nigel and I know who our people are.” Just don’t mention the £5 million donation… Jenrick promised to abolish Indefinite Leave to Remain and make it harder for people to get British citizenship. Anyone prioritising foreign workers over Brits would be penalised. Nick Candy made the explosive claim that Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch had asked Boris Johnson to run as a candidate against Nigel Farage in the last Clacton by-election. Candy dodged a lot of questions by the Telegraph team. “‘I’m not a policy guy,” he insisted, despite being the party treasurer. There were, I was told, more business people at this year’s conference. One, from the tech sector, said she was at Reform for the first time because the party is now harder to ignore. “They’ve consistently been polling very high,” she said. While business folks were welcomed with open arms, a few journalists were banned, including the Guardian’s Anna Isaac who revealed the secret £5 million donation from crypto millionaire Christopher Harborne, and Michael Crick, a veteran broadcaster who wrote Farage’s biography. Ms Badenoch was hacked off. “Public scrutiny is part of the gig. If Nigel Farage can’t handle difficult questions about his dodgy £5 million then he shouldn’t be a politician,” the Tory party leader said. Those who did get approved were crammed into a press pen. As with most events these days, the internet was patchy. “You get a £5 million donation and you can’t get decent wifi?” one disgruntled hack said. Day two was livelier. This time the queue snaked around the venue, with people waiting to collect their passes to get inside. Those of us who already had one from the day before could breeze through. It meant some speeches were delayed by about an hour. “It’s never a problem at Labour or Tory conference because they send out passes to people well in advance,” one delegate lamented. It felt more like a party conference. Some people were sporting blue Nigel football shirts. There was even a bloke walking around dressed as a knight for some bizarre reason. A young woman, dressed in a pleather Union Jack jacket, had travelled from Liverpool, saying she didn’t recognise her city anymore. “My family are Jamaican, did it the proper way, came the right way, gave back to society, my dad’s fought in the army,” she told one outlet. “People coming in now, we don’t know who they are. It’s not safe, it’s not.” Others said Reform was the ‘only Right-wing vehicle’ that was going to do something about the rising tax and inflation. Despite the buoyant atmosphere, the event was somewhat overshadowed by explosive revelations broadcast on Channel 4 on Thursday night. Undercover filming by Verbatim Investigations showed Farage's head of policy, Dan Jukes, appearing to suggest a way to evade electoral law to secure a foreign donation of £500,000 for Reform. Verbatim, founded by the Centre for Climate Reporting, posed as a potential Reform supporter and his wealthy American father, who paid for over £30,000 of polling commissioned by Reform, which benefited the party. The polling was not attributed to the party, and was reported in the Telegraph and the Times without the newspapers knowing that it was commissioned by Reform. Orr has since stepped down, as has Dan Jukes, a senior aide to Mr Farage, as the party says it’s launching an internal investigation. At a press conference that day, the Reform UK leader blamed it on ‘loose pub talk’, saying ‘neither of these members were authorised to act in this way’. "The party has done nothing wrong and no illegal money was taken," he insisted. Mr Farage also called Jukes a ‘contractor’, which would come as a blow to a man who was an integral part of the Reform machine and is very close to Mr Farage. On Thursday night, he appeared to be in good spirits, right before the allegations came to light. But will these latest claims make a dent in Reform’s support? One Party member described it as ‘inconclusive’. “Well all parties do it, Tories, Labour,” he told the MEN. “If they’d committed a criminal act that would be different. But most Reformer voters don’t care, they think all politicians are in it for themselves.” Another hesitated before saying: “Let’s see what the investigation says.” Reform on the one hand claimed it was a ‘hoax’ by a ‘bunch of left-wing activists’. But then why would the two senior figures need to step down? These are the kind of scandals that make people question whether Reform is truly ready to govern as a serious party. Zia Yusuf caused outrage earlier this week when he expressed his views on Camden council leader a former Somalian refugee Sagal Abdi-Wali, who could be Labour’s candidate for Holborn and St Pancras, the seat vacated by Keir Starmer. “The front runner being foisted on the people of Holborn … was born in Somalia,” Yusuf tweeted. “Do you understand what’s happening?” Yusuf was immediately accused of racism by the Lib Dems , who said it was ‘straight out of the Trump playbook’. When asked about Yusuf’s comments, his colleagues could barely muster up a defence. Richard Tice told Times Radio: “I don’t control other people’s tweets.” Even Farage has previously told him to tone down his language on social media. ‘Bulldozer Zia’, as Reform MP Lee Anderson described him, appeared on the main stage, walking out slowly and pointing to someone in the crowd like an A-list celeb. “Are you excited?” he called out, before saying he wanted a ‘reversal of the left wing blog’ and to ‘stop the illegal invasion of our country’. His speech was more fiery, as he talked about the ‘grave situation’ Britain is in. He even labelled Kemi Badenoch a ‘con artist’. Lee Anderson threw Reform t-shirts into the crowd, like an ageing rock star. “Who wants our country back?” he asked the audience. His speech was littered with digs at the other parties; London mayor Sadiq Khan elicited a few boos. “I’ve noticed the media is coming for us,” he declared. A lady nearby was laughing so hard at his jokes that she was in danger of falling out of her seat. Each party figure paid tribute to Miss Widdecombe. Farage later said Ann ‘would have wanted the show to go on’. A special guest at the conference was French politician Jordan Bardella, president of the far-right National Rally (RN). He agreed a deal with Farage on returning migrants who attempt to cross the English Channel in small boats. Reform UK had earlier announced that, if it wins power, it will intercept boats and return migrants to French ports using the Navy. The proposed agreement with RN states that France would ‘ordinarily accept’ those on board, and then repatriate them to their home country. The party’s former president is Marine le Pen, back when it was still named the National Front. At a press conference, Farage said he had no qualms with the party under its new leadership. “When Marine took over I watched, I didn’t immediately put my hand up and say, I’m a supporter,” he told reporters. Le Pen, had got ‘rid of those extremist elements, putting [the party] into the mainstream of French national debate’. After the press conference, Mr Farage popped in for a pint (of course) at the Wetherspoons opposite, where he was greeted with cheers. The party leader’s speech wrapping up the event was delayed that afternoon. Mr Farage was due to speak just before 3.50pm, then pushed back to 4.20. At around 5pm, the audience broke out into song: Sweet Caroline. The delay was thanks to a banner that appeared behind Richard Tice while he was speaking. Greenpeace later claimed responsibility for the poster, which depicted Farage as Mr Monopoly carrying a sack of money, with the slogan 'Collect £5 million, burn the planet'. It was a disastrous security lapse, given how all senior Reform figures were escorted by security personnel throughout the conference. By the time Farage got onto stage it was nearly half past five. Counter terror police reportedly wouldn’t allow him initially but he was soon walking through the cheering crowds like a pop star. He had a pop at No 10 North, the Prime Minister’s Manchester HQ, implying it was a waste of money. He was confident there would be an election spring, before labelling Andy Burnham ‘the messiah without a mandate’. Farage’s speech was heckled several times. He chanted ‘boring, boring, as the crowd booed. There were many disruptions and at least four protesters were physically removed from the hall. Because for all the cheering and political theatre, and hardcore party loyalists seeming unphased, the chatter around the latest allegations isn’t dying down any time soon.
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