Breathing down their NECs: Farage hopes his Brum rally can take him past the Tories
Breathing down their NECs: Farage hopes his Brum rally can take him past the Tories
Reform UK bring the crowds. But why Birmingham?
Dear Patchers – welcome to your Monday briefing.
On Sunday, two very different men had crowds on their feet in Birmingham. Across the city’s bars, pubs and living rooms, Stourbridge’s finest (Jude Bellingham, of course) scored an acrobatic late equaliser to save England’s skin after a shambolic 90 minutes had them on the verge of Euros elimination.
Meanwhile, at the NEC, 4,500-odd Nigel Farage fans packed in for a Donald Trump-esque Reform UK rally. Farage might not boast the same universal appeal as Bellingham (to date, there are no reported incidents of the England midfielder being doused in milkshake) but the scale of his rally seemed to suggest genuine momentum for his party.
Before we take a closer look at that though, let’s rewind to last week, where we served up two political bangers for our paying members.
On Wednesday Kate paid a visit to Sutton Coldfield for an election story featuring Bob Geldolf, the suggestion that one of the candidates might be a gigolo (legally we must note that he isn’t really a gigolo), and a Tory MP who doesn’t seem to have a clue how much his constituents earn. Don’t miss that one.
And on Thursday we broke a big exclusive, revealing that Akhmed Yakoob — the high-profile independent challenger to Labour in Ladywood — set up a business with a convicted criminal only last year. “Genuinely astonishing,” was the response of one reader.
Editor’s note: Whether making multiple trips to a constituency like Sutton Coldfield, having in-depth conversations with all of the candidates, or seriously examining the business connections of a prospective MP like Yakoob, journalism like this takes a lot of work to pull off — but it’s the right approach. For too long local journalism has been dominated by clickbait-heavy filler designed to maximize ad revenues, but we believe the West Midlands deserves better. Please support us by signing up today.
And one last thing! This coming Sunday is the deadline for our staff writer job. All the details about the role can be found here, and if you do know someone who might be suitable, please do send the ad their way. Many thanks.
Weather
☁️ Tuesday: Memories of last week’s heatwave are behind us. Dull cloud all day. Max 17°C
🌧️ Wednesday: A wetter Wednesday. Light rain to start before drying up. Max 17°C
🌥️ Thursday: Sun fights cloud all day. Moderately breezy. Max 18°C
🌧️ Friday: The breeze stays and is joined by drizzle and rain. Max 17°C
🌦️ Weekend: Spring-like weather. Spells of sun and rain, breeze lessens as weekend develops. Max 18°C
We get our weather from the Met Office.
The big story: Farage hopes his Brum rally can take him past the Tories
Top line: It’s a venue perhaps best known for Crufts, but on Sunday the vibe was a little different: 4,500-odd Reform UK supporters packed into the Birmingham NEC for an event billed as the biggest of Nigel Farage’s political career. And the old dog was keeping to his tried and tested routine of tricks.
Why Birmingham? A recent YouGov MRP poll predicted Reform would win five seats — which would be generally considered a very good result for Farage’s party. None of those seats (Clacton, Basildon and Billericay, Louth and Horncastle, Ashfield and Great Yarmouth) are in the West Midlands, but at least according to Peter Durnell, regional manager for West Midlands Reform UK, “Birmingham is really on the map and is buzzing for Reform UK.”
Quite how “buzzing” Birmingham, or the West Midlands, is for Reform is debatable. When asked why he’d chosen the venue, Farage’s answer suggested the decision was largely practical, rather than that he might cause a shock in the region on Thursday (though he did add that some constituencies “could be three or four-way marginals”). He said:
"I mean, this is the best venue in the country. It just happens to be here in Birmingham. As for the West Midlands I've no idea, but you know, I've only been doing this a month. We're on a journey. And it feels to me like we have real momentum behind us.”
What went down? Farage’s event had all the hallmarks of a Donald Trump rally in America: crowds packed into a large space, massive flags draped around, pyrotechnics, and the use of the phrase “Make Britain Great Again”. According to The Telegraph, the age profile of the audience was varied, with lots of locals (“the audience was all ages – lots of Brummies, hats ranging from cowboy to pirate to bowler”), though those present reported that the audience was almost exclusively white.
It hasn’t all been going swimmingly for Farage though. During a speech the day prior, the protest group Led by Donkeys lowered a banner reading ‘I ❤️ Nigel’, accompanied by a smiling image of the Russian leader Vladimir Putin, a reference to Farage’s recent comments that the invasion of Ukraine was provoked by NATO’s eastward expansion (two men then came on-stage and struggled awkwardly to take the banner down).
To coincide with the big Birmingham rally, the BBC got together a panel of election candidates from across the Midlands to debate the impact Reform UK was having. The conversation naturally turned to Channel 4’s recent exposé of the party’s activists in Clacton, where one Reform canvasser was caught on camera using racial slurs to refer to the Prime Minister and suggested migrants arriving on the UK coast should be shot.
One of the panelists, Labour’s Ladywood candidate Shabana Mahmood, is busy fending off the threat of her own disruptor rival (independent candidate Akhmed Yakoob — more on him here) but had this to say about the Channel 4 story:
“All political parties can be united on this — there should be no place in our country and politics for racism and we should all take a strong position in calling that out.”
Bottom line: The scale of Farage’s rally echoes what the polls have indicated: that his party has genuine momentum. Many in Birmingham will of course be far from thrilled that their city has been used as a vessel for the Reform message, but to deny the growing support for Farage across the UK would be churlish. Whether or not that support can translate into more than one or two seats is less clear, but we don’t have to wait long to find out.
Photo of the week
New(ish) art on a new-ish route in Birmingham alert! This snap, taken by Dr Helen Ingram, shows street art by talented local Annatomix and was taken on the newly opened River Rea Trail in Rubery.
Brum in brief
⚽ ‘Who else?’ England’s Euro 2024 hopes had roughly 90 seconds left when Jude Bellingham launched himself into the air to crash the ball into the Slovakian net with an audacious overhead kick. Saving a nation from footballing despair, he wheeled away with his teammates, reportedly mouthing ‘who else?’ to those around him. The Stourbridge lad and ex-Birmingham City player's acrobatics pulled England level after an admittedly dismal 90 minutes. Harry Kane then scored the extra-time winner. Jude’s heroics earned him the man of the match award. Who else indeed!
🔁 ‘Player laundering’: In other football news, rival fans have hit out at Aston Villa claiming the club is ‘player laundering’. With Villa under pressure to comply with the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules — which, in theory, force clubs to limit their financial losses — many are selling and swapping players before an accounting deadline. While there are no suggestions Villa has breached the rules, the club has been involved in selling academy products to Everton and Chelsea before said deadline, often for big fees. The BBC has seen a letter that suggests the Premier League will force clubs to give back fees that it feels are inflated, as clubs, Villa included, move to meet these rules. Previously, Villa’s owner, Nassef Sawiris, has claimed the rules do not make sense. More here.
🔋 Battery-backed future: The people behind the West Midlands gigafactory in Coventry say the next government must do all it can to secure investment in the battery sector — so we don’t fall behind countries such as Spain, the US and France. The Greenpower Park team and Coventry council say “securing battery cell supply in the UK today is as vital as securing steel was in the 1940s and 50s”. Richard Moore, Greenpower Park’s battery strategy specialist, added: “If the next government doesn’t take action, there will be a major risk to the security of energy supply, which will leave the nation in a perilous state.” Full story.
Home of the week
If you’re craving a little colour, check out this Victorian four-bed in Acocks Green. It has a garden, a cottage-style bathroom and a breakfast kitchen (whoever last lived there has excellent taste in chairs). It’s on Zoopla now for £400,000.
Media picks
This morning, the Guardian published a report from the food bank queue at Birmingham Central Mosque. John Harris asked a student nurse, a carer, and the food bank volunteers if a change to Labour would make any difference for the city. Read their answers here.
And over on Perspective Media, writer Lily Webb is sent (back) to Coventry to reflect on why her hometown is so often overlooked and underappreciated. “To the browsing middle-class eye, it has little going for it and only hit the spotlight in the past five years when Binley Mega Chippy went viral over a silly song,” she writes. “A visit to Cov, however, reveals a warmth and spirit I have yet to see matched. Coventry is a special place. It died and was reborn.”
Things to do
Tuesday
📽️ Head to the Birmingham Indian Film Festival for an evening of new short films by British Asian filmmakers, who showcase everything from the role of South Asian women in the NHS to young girls finding freedom through skateboarding. Full programme.
🎹 Blurring the line between electronic and classical, Nils Frahm visits Birmingham to perform his internationally acclaimed music. Tickets start at £45, but The Dispatch wholly recommends.
Wednesday
📺 Catchphrase fans, you can get your fill of word wizardry, cliches, and idioms by moseying on down to the Old Crown for a night of fun with original Catchphrase host Roy Walker and Birmingham’s Ben Kane. Say what you see!
🎤 Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Chaka Khan hits the stage at Warwick Castle to bring her Grammy-winning music that transcends the boundaries of pop, soul, jazz, and gospel. Tickets here.
Thursday
🗳️ For those wanting to watch the General Election results with beer and other punters, get yourself to 1000 Trades in the JQ for a night of big-screen politics. Full details.
🕺 If politics isn’t your thing, then escape the wall-to-wall coverage by heading down to The Jam House for a night of disco and soul with ‘80s stars Odyssey. More details.