Reform UK Brings Former Brexit Party MEPs Back Ahead of General Election

Reform UK leader Richard Tice speaks during a party press conference in London on March 20, 2023. Carl Court/Getty Images

Reform UK has brought prominent former Brexit Party MEPs back into the party and announced that it will stand hundreds of candidates in the next general election.

On Monday, Reform UK’s current leader Richard Tice told a conference, under a new “Make Britain Great” slogan, that 11 former Brexit Party MEPs, or members of the European Parliament, including Ann Widdecombe and Ben Habib are rejoining the party.

Originally founded by Nigel Farage and formerly called the Brexit Party, Reform UK is setting itself up as an alternative to the Conservative Party, and mobilising a post-Brexit policy agenda.

Tice said that the party will stand 500 candidates in the local elections and that it is planning to stand 630 candidates in the next general election, which must take place by early 2025.

Tice also highlighted the economy, health care system, energy market, and immigration policy as requiring major reforms.

He added he believes that the Tories and Labour are “two sides of the same socialist coin.”

Reform UK honorary president Nigel Farage walks to the stage during a party press conference in London on March 20, 2023. Carl Court/Getty Images

Tice said that Reform UK’s membership has been growing rapidly.

“We don’t give the total number, but it’s been growing very rapidly, particularly since so many people realise that the Conservative Party was no longer conservative when [former Prime Minister] Liz Truss was ousted and Jeremy Hunt was installed as chancellor. So, growing rapidly, many people will stand, and as I say, we’re standing absolutely everywhere,” he said.

Former Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe has joined the party, though she appeared to rule out standing as an MP.

When asked, she said: “If you ask that question in Parliament at the moment, I think an awful lot of MPs will tell you they were still making their mind up.”

When pressed again if she would run, she said, “No, I’m ancient.”

Former Brexit Party MEP David Bull, who like Tice is currently a presenter for Talk TV, said that the NHS needed “radical root-and-branch reform.”

According to a UK Polling Report on Westminster voting intention, Reform is at 6 percent.

Reform UK member Ann Widdecombe speaks during a party press conference in London on March 20, 2023. Carl Court/Getty Images

In a video posted after the event, former Brexit Party MEP Ben Habib said that “this Conservative government is not Conservative, it has borrowed, taxed and spent out money to the point of economic destruction.”

There has been speculation that Farage would return to the party, but he has said he is not standing, but is available “to help and advise.”

“The job for Reform is even bigger than the task that is faced by UKIP,” he said.

“This is about getting our entire country back on track, changing the priorities of our government and opposition and I’m here to help in absolutely every way.”

‘Insurgent Parties’

In 2019, the Brexit Party did not field any candidates against the Conservatives in the 317 seats they won at the last general election. At the time, the party said this was to help the pro-Brexit Conservatives to gain Labour-held seats to give them the overall majority that former Prime Minister Boris Johnson was seeking.

In the same year, the Brexit Party won 29 seats in the UK’s European elections, while the pro-EU Liberal Democrats came second.

Reform UK is explicitly critical of net-zero policies and is also associated with “Vote Power, Not Poverty,” a cross-party, grassroots campaign made up of activists from different parties that is demanding a “referendum on the life-changing net-zero plans forced upon us by Westminster politicians.”

In January, Tice told The Epoch Times that his commercial mortgage was refused last year because of his outspokenness on net-zero policies, which went against the lender’s environmental, social, and governance policy.

Last year, Reform joined forces with actor Laurence Fox’s Reclaim Party to create an electoral pact. Fox said he had faced major issues securing a bank account for donations, which have only recently been remedied.

“The idea of insurgent parties coming along who speak actually for people, who care about things like immigration, for example, our cultural heritage or freedom of speech, they make it almost impossible to operate,” Fox said at the time.

The Epoch Times contacted the Conservative and Labour parties for comment.