Inside the power struggle at Reform UK Birmingham

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“Nowhere is as broken as Birmingham,” Nigel Farage said in February. “We’re going to throw everything we’ve got at those Birmingham elections.”

Farage’s battle cry delivered to the ‘time for Reform rally’ could not have been clearer. His party, forged eight years ago from the ashes of the Vote Leave victory, was ready for domination. In the intervening years they had secured a string of landmark wins: the most seats in the 2019 European Parliamentary elections as the Brexit Party, eight MPs in Westminster, and control of 12 councils across the country. 

Farage had been visiting Birmingham increasingly often. In fact, back in September the Reform UK 2025 conference was held here. And why not? The city’s well-publicised struggles made for an evocative backdrop, carefully depicted in stage props at the National Exhibition Centre like a nightmarish version of a Tracey Emin installation: a feast of overflowing bins, fly-tipped rubbish, and pot-holed roads. And this was just the dress rehearsal.

Reform UK has since set the city in its crosshairs, preparing to seize the city council at the polls on 7 May. But over the last seven months, an unstoppable force has complicated matters. Not, as you might expect, a well-coordinated group of activists or a rival party strategising against them. Instead, dissent has been stirring among the rank and file of Birmingham Reform.

Long-term members who wanted to be candidates have been given the cold shoulder, while former councillors from local Conservative and Labour parties have quietly embedded themselves in the party. 

“Reform is becoming just like the uni-party,” said one unhappy person who would only speak anonymously, using the informal term Reformers use to describe both Labour and the Conservatives. “They’re exactly the same as each other,” they added.

But for those who remain, Birmingham Reform is simply doing what it needs to do to professionalise. Jason West, the party’s candidate for Highters Heath, told The Dispatch that those who were complaining were merely disappointed not to have been selected as candidates. “It's a little bit akin to if you go for a job and you don't get it, you might be frustrated,” he said.

A Reform UK spokesperson said, “we are determined to field only candidates who meet the highest standards of integrity, professionalism and political competence to represent the people of Birmingham.”

The Court Oak conflab

The trouble with trying to establish what is bothering so many people in Birmingham Reform is that very few of them want to go on the record. A lot of disgruntled members and ex-members are happy to talk to me about their concerns — far fewer want to put their name to them. The most common reason for this, I discover, is that most of those in question don't want to entirely cut ties with the party. Still, they’re happy to talk — albeit under the cover of anonymity. So what exactly is going on at Reform UK Birmingham?