Reform is now touching 30 per cent in the polls, as Labour lags on 22 per cent and the Tories trail on just 15 per cent. As such, the insurgent party must prepare for more frenzied attacks from the old parties whose dominance it now seriously threatens. Is Nigel Farage’s party ready to face the inevitably detailed forensic scrutiny of its still rather vague policy agenda?
One key question that Reform must answer is where they stand on the ideological spectrum: are they Thatcherite free marketeers, or neo-socialists prepared to use the state to mitigate the excesses of unbridled capitalism?
Reform must decide which ideological road to travel: left or right
The trouble for Reform is that, while their leadership troika are all convinced capitalists with a business background, their strongest support comes from the working-class regions of the Red Wall in the north, Midlands and Wales: all traditional Labour voting areas. Farage is a former metals trader who has spoken of introducing elements of the free market into the NHS; his deputy Richard Tice and Reform chairman Zia Yusuf are both successful millionaire businessmen with a strong aversion to state socialism.
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