The Reform UK Party were one of the surprise success stories of the 2024 General Election, growing from one defecting MP to having five MPs and securing a whopping 14.3% of the vote share, meaning they finished third in the popular vote and ahead of the Lib Dems, despite the latter securing 72 MPs.

That anomaly is a quirk of the UK’s first-past-the-post electoral system, but it doesn’t hide the fact that Reform UK is a growing force in the UK’s political debate. With charismatic MPs like Lee Anderson, Richard Tice, and, of course, party leader Nigel Farage, Reform UK is likely to play a big role in this Parliament’s political narrative.

That’s why Barndoor Strategy Managing Director David Spencer was on the ground at the Reform UK Conference in Birmingham this weekend to speak with Reform UK members and officials and get a sense of just how serious a proposition Reform UK is set to be in UK politics moving forward.

The Conference itself was a modest affair. There were just three fringe events on Day 1 of the conference, carefully scheduled not to clash with speeches in the hall. This had the desired effect of a full hall for a range of speeches by Party MPs and officials (plus TV celebrity Ant Middleton, for some reason), a stark contrast from larger Party Conferences, where the main hall is often half empty, and most agree that all the interesting activity takes place in the fringe events and the bars.

After early speeches from James McMurdock MP (Ref, South Basildon and East Thurock) and Ann Widdecombe (plus Middleton) the main event started after the lunch break. Rupert Lowe MP (Ref, Great Yarmouth) began proceedings warming up for Lee Anderson MP (Ref, Ashfield), who was typically incendiary and bombastic.

Anderson attacked Sadiq Khan’s record as Mayor of London, noting how crime had grown on his watch and the irony that Khan has said he doesn’t feel safe in a city where he is in charge of the police.

Richard Tice MP (Ref, Boston and Skegness) was next on stage. A polished public speaker, he outlined Reform electoral achievements and attacked what he called the three cults of mass immigration, the NHS, and net zero. He cited recent figures showing low-skilled immigrants cost the country more than they contribute, said we want an NHS that actually worked, and derided Ed Miliband as Net Zero’s ‘chief zealot’ citing the economic and environmental damage his plans for onshore wind and solar will cause.

His speech was punctuated by pantomime boos and cheers as he gave the audience plenty of what they wanted. This included a pledge to scrap Net Zero if Reform UK wins he next election, without any specifics on how this would be delivered.

Reform UK Chairman Zia Yusuf was next. A less confident speaker, he resorted to regularly using the term patriots to describe Reform UK supporters as he outlined his plans to professionalise the party, starting with a new constitution.

Yusuf, like Tice before him, was confident that Reform could win the next General Election and talked about Nigel Farage as ‘the next Prime Minister’. This was indicative of the confidence that permeated the entire event. Those regular Reform UK members that I spoke to, which included a surprising number of younger people, also seemed confident that they were on the road to power.

Curiously, Yusuf told the story of Alexander Flemings’s discovery of penicillin and Lieutenant John Grayburn, who won the VC posthumously for bravery at the Battle of Arnhem, a disastrous UK assault on Nazi German lines during the Second World War.

He promised ‘the most ambitious and bold reforms this country has seen in our lifetimes’ under a Reform Government, saying they would secure borders, freeze migration, defend British values, stop the boats, get the knives off our streets, cut energy bills, and put British people first. But like those speakers before him and Nigel Farage afterwards, there was no detail about what these reforms would look like or how they would achieve this.

The keynote speaker was, of course, Nigel Farage MP (Ref, Clacton), who entered to pyrotechnics and the Eminem song ‘Without Me’. His speech was littered with references to himself, telling the adoring crowd how he had given up the good life to lead them and lamenting (kindly) the amateurism that was in place when he came back.

He talked about professionalising the party, introducing a branch system modelled on the Lib Dems effective grassroots operation, and promising that candidates will be properly vetted, and bigots and extremists were not welcome. He made the decision to turn Reform UK into a not-for-profit company seem like a great personal sacrifice as he holds 60% of the primary limited company’s shares.

Farage claimed to represent the silent majority and promised members would approve the new constitution, have strong representation on the party Board, and choose their own local candidates.

This event was part celebration for Reform’s electoral achievements and part planning for what it hopes is more success to come. The structural changes to the party may not be sexy headline news, but if they can get even close to what the Lib Dems achieve at a local level in their target areas, they will be a force to be reckoned with.

There is a genuine belief that Reform UK can make big gains in the 2025 local elections, win seats in Scotland and Wales in 2026, and be serious contenders when the next General Election comes around.

However, there is one elephant in the room: policy. The speeches illustrated that Reform UK is effective at identifying the problems many people see in the UK. But they need to add some meat to the bones of their policy offering if they are going to convince people they have the answers to these problems.

At the moment, Reform UK is big on rhetoric and small on solutions. It remains to be seen if, alongside a modernised party structure, they can build a policy platform that attracts voters outside the cult of Nigel Farage.

But there is huge positivity within the party, a growing membership, and a sense of momentum. Reform UK is definitely going to be a big voice in the UK political debate over the next five years.