The Reform leadership race has begun

After a helpful suggestion from a subscriber, I decided to record an audio version of this article. Just click play on the image below to listen! 🎙️ And, as always, you can scroll down to read. Subscribe now On Friday, a protestor was assaulted at Reform's annual conference. After attempting to disrupt Nigel Farage's speech, they were restrained by security – allowing one conference attendee to wrench the hair of the protestor, a young woman, and another to choke her with a crutch. The footage doesn't make for pleasant viewing. But almost more appalling was the reaction of Reform's economic spokesperson, Robert Jenrick, who defended these silver-haired yobs. Touring around broadcast studios on Sunday, he told journalists to 'get a life' after they asked whether he condoned the violence. We can only assume that he did. I know that Jenrick is aweapons-grade prat, but I was stunned at his reaction. It's never a good idea for a politician to sanction violence, especially when it's captured frame-by-frame at your party conference. He didn't even say that the Reform delegates – the crutch-wielding thugs – overreacted in the heat of the moment. He simply said that the protestor got what was coming to her. Charming. And then it dawned on me – Jenrick isn't interested in winning the support of the general public, the tolerant masses who would rightly be repulsed by the video. Instead, he's speaking exclusively to Reform members – to the baying mob. Why? Because Nigel Farage is wounded and may soon collapse under the weight of a dozen investigations into his finances. His successor won't be selected by the right-minded public, but rather Reform members – even those with anger management issues. As I've written previously – Farageis a mob boss. He's surrounded by a narrow clan of disciples recruited due to their cult loyalty and their willingness to stuff his pockets full of cash. But several are now embroiled in scandal – his personal patrons Christopher Harborne and 'Posh George' Cottrell, his fixer Dan Jukes, and his senior aide James Orr. Farage is running dangerously short of devotees – the mob boss is no longer protected by his consiglieri – and even his family aretelling himto quit. So, Jenrick has spied an opportunity to fulfil his lifelong craving for power without principle – as has fellow party bigwig Zia Yusuf. The sharks are smelling blood – and boy are they hungry. Subscribe now They're also barely concealing their ambitions. Yusuf released a promotionalfilmon X (the natural habitat of Reform's reprobates) in the moments before the start of party conference, documenting his personal story. With shots of his family home accompanied by motivational music and platitudes about Britain's meritocratic promise being squandered, he may as well have been wearing a 'Zia for leader' badge. And, like Jenrick, he's preaching to the choir – to an angry throng who want to deport brown people en masse and would happily throttle a climate protestor for the hell of it. Yusuf has been playing this game for months – which is why his social media posts have become increasingly unhinged. Just take hisclaimlast week that Sagal Abdi-Wali – a former child refugee from Somalia and the leader of Camden council – is not British and should not succeed Keir Starmer as the Holborn and St Pancras MP. Refugees and immigrants are some of the most patriotic people I know. They're thankful for the freedoms and rights offered by Britain – often more so than 'native' Brits, who often take those privileges for granted. Yet Yusuf is trying to court favour among a bigoted sub-section of society whose brains have been hollowed out by Elon Musk's algorithm. To any normal person, Yusuf's posts look deranged. But, when you see the videos from Reform conference, he comes across as one of the party's more moderate members. Aside, that is, from Nadine Dorries. Such is the state of right-wing politics that Dorries – herself historically familiar with the politics of delusion – has become a voice of wisdom and reason in Reform. Speaking at the party's conference (she's a member but holds no formal position), the former Tory minister said:'I think Zia's got a problem with Twitter and someone needs to take hisphoneoff him.' Bravo!Finallyan opinion from a Reform politician that I can agree with. But how did this happen? How did Nadine Dorries, the media secretary whoforgothow Channel 4 was funded, become a political savant? As is the case with a lot of politicians, she has lost her ambition and in the process regained her judgement. She doesn't appear to hold any aspirations of being appointed to a Reform administration. Indeed, I've barely seen Dorries since her defection last year. So she's able to speak honestly – unencumbered by the distorting, hypnotising influence of her own political aspirations. And while many people within Reform have herded towards the far-right, dragged there by Musk and Rupert Lowe, it seems that Dorries has retained some of her conservative core. For once, she has the right electoral instincts. Reform should focus on attracting – and retaining – right-of-centre voters who baulk at high taxes but also want their politicians to operate with decency and probity. Dorries knows more than most the electoral implications of losing the moral high ground. She was Boris Johnson's ride or die – the last of his last true believers when his premiership was consumed by rolling corruption scandals (some of which this author helped toexpose). However, it seems unlikely that she will be heard amid the frantic far-right posturing from Jenrick and Yusuf. Share The pair are in a leadership contest. Ergo, two of Farage's most senior figures are not devoted solely to winning a general election. Instead, they're concentrating on deposing him as leader – or, as Boris Johnson once said, getting ready to grab the ball if it comes loose 'from the back of the scrum'. Given these two men are among the most influential in Reform, this is driving it further away from the electorate – turning the party from an election-winning machine into a vehicle for satisfying the strange, psychotic resentments of its members. This happens in all political parties when they face inwards rather than outwards. However, in the case of Reform, it has potentially dangerous consequences, if by some miracle (or whatever the opposite of a miracle is) it wins the next general election. It will have spent years pandering to its radical fringe – indulging its craving for ugly, authoritarian politics. And with masked far-right vigilantes now roaming the British coastline, that's not a future any of us in our right minds should want to see. Subscribe now P.S. I'm not claiming to be an oracle, but a couple of things I've said in recent months seem to be coming true. They were incredibly obvious statements, but I'm going to register them as victories nevertheless. On Novara a couple of weeks ago, I said (with no knowledge of theChannel 4 investigation) that we'd only seen the beginning of the financial scandals involving Nigel Farage. And, on PoliticsJOE earlier in the year, I said that Reform's recruitment of ambitious Tory narcissists would inevitably lead to infighting. Hopefully that collapse comes even sooner than I predicted. Subscribe now