The May elections were a disaster for the Tories – but a triumph for Reform. As the dust settled on the results, Spectator subscribers and readers heard from Reform UK’s chairman Zia Yusuf and former Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg at a live edition of Coffee House Shots: The local elections shake-up. Joining them at the Emmanuel Centre in Westminster on 7 May was The Spectator’s editor Michael Gove, deputy political editor James Heale and political correspondent Lucy Dunn.
‘The reality is that people simply do not believe anything that the Tories say anymore,’ says Yusuf
‘I remain more confident than ever that Nigel Farage will be our next Prime Minister,’ Yusuf told the audience. ‘Our ambition is for Nigel to get the keys to Number 10 Downing Street, and for us to have 350 to 400 Reform MPs in 2029.’
Reform’s resurgence is certainly causing trouble for the Conservatives. Yusuf said there is a simple reason why: ‘The reality is that people simply do not believe anything that the Tories say anymore.’
Rees-Mogg said that his party urgently needs to listen to voters: ‘We as conservatives have to recognise that these elections were a huge victory for conservatism, but not for the Conservative party. They were a victory for views that conservatives hold. The advice I would give to the Conservative party is to be conservative and get back to what we’re meant to do, which is to be on the side of the people who vote for us.’
Should Reform and the Tories team up? Yusuf suggested that a pact isn’t in Reform’s interests, because, he said, the Tory party is now toxic: ‘The brand of the Conservative Party and the Tory brand is broken. We live in a world now where a young startup can make big moves very quickly.’
Reform’s success can only continue, of course, if it can keep hold of its new voters. To do so, it needs to ensure that it delivers. Michael Gove who chaired the discussion asked what voters in the places where Reform is now in charge can expect from their Reform representatives.
‘We’re going to govern in a very different way,’ says Yusuf. One of the party’s big targets is wasteful spending. ‘If you are a DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) officer, or if you have a sneakily slightly different job title to protect you from FOI (Freedom of Information) requests, you should potentially start looking for new work’.
As well as tackling waste, Yusuf says Reform is determined to do something to address voters’ fears that their communities are being hollowed out: ‘So many of these communities have been totally left behind. And I do think there are serious questions that we need to ask as a country about how do we revivify a community spirit? I don’t think that has been done in decades.’
As James Heale pointed out, the signs of the economic malaise of the last decade that has gripped Britain are clear to see on high streets around Britain: ‘We have just failed to grow for a generation. What you are seeing is the visible decline, particularly compared to other nations around the world, which are growing at a much faster rate.’ This was a theme explored in Gus Carter’s cover piece for The Spectator.
Unhappiness about the state of the country is one of the reasons voters are turning to Reform. But it isn’t only in England that the party is capitalising. Lucy Dunn said that Reform is riding high north of the border too. Reform’s message to Scottish voters to ignore the Tories and Labour and turn to Reform is cutting through, particularly in working-class areas in cities like Glasgow, says Dunn.
The event concluded with questions from the audience before a few lucky subscribers joined the panel at a post-event drinks reception back at The Spectator’s Westminster offices, courtesy of our partner Charles Stanley.
You can listen to a full recording of Coffee House Shots Live: The local elections shake-up here. Join our events newsletter here for updates on upcoming events and special offers
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