Nigel Farage has put Reform on a ‘war footing’ and said the party will be ready for Government within a month or two – as he claimed Labour‘s descent into chaos means a general election could come as early as this year.
Rallying his troops at a Reform event in Birmingham, Mr Farage said on Monday he had opened applications on the party’s website for Britain’s ‘brightest and best’ to run as his candidates for the next general election – calling on his ‘people’s army’ to answer the charge.
Mr Farage told the 2,500-strong crowd that he would announce his shadow cabinet in ‘the next few days’ in preparation for a Reform Government, with a focus on bringing in talent from outside politics.
This comes as the party revealed on Monday night that Simon Dudley, former chair of Homes England, had joined Reform.
With Sir Keir clinging on to power, the Reform leader said he is determined to have a fighting-fit candidate list ready to enter a general election as soon as this year if the Prime Minister does resign.
The Labour leader is currently scrambling to save his premiership, after it emerged last week he had appointed Peter Mandelson to US envoy despite knowing he was friends with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar yesterday called for the PM to resign, after his chief of staff handed in his notice at the weekend, and his comms director followed him out the door.
Nigel Farage fired Reform T-shirts into the crowd at the Birmingham NEC Centre on Monday – as he called for Britain’s ‘brightest and best’ to run as candidates for MPs
Mr Farage was joined by his eight Reform MPs on stage after announcing he would reveal his shadow cabinet in coming days
But Sir Keir’s Cabinet ministers rallied round their leader pledging loyalty – temporarily staving off any leadership challenge.
Soft-left agitator Angela Rayner even said the Prime Minister had her ‘full support’ as she urged Labour MPs to ‘come together, remember our values and put them into practice as a team‘.
Claiming that none of his Cabinet ‘want to appear to be the person that wields the knife’ that takes down Sir Keir, Mr Farage predicted the PM will soon be ‘gone and replaced by somebody undoubtedly far worse’.
Mr Farage warned that the ‘lunacy’ over Angela Rayner’s employment reforms would be the tip of the iceberg if she were to take over from Sir Keir, while Reform chief whip Lee Anderson suggested the former deputy prime minister had been ‘throwing money away’ after footage emerged this weekend of her having a fresh haircut.
But Mr Farage stopped short of saying Reform is now ready to take the keys of No 10 should the Labour Government fall.
He said: ‘We’ve really only been properly in gear for the last 18, 20 months.
‘What we’ve achieved in that short space of time is truly remarkable, but it’s rather like building a company: the first 25 per cent takes a long time, and then once you’ve got things moving, things slip into gear very quickly.
‘I said a couple of weeks ago, we were 50 per cent prepared.
‘I would argue, within a month or two months, we will genuinely be ready, certainly more ready than all of the others.’
Setting out his plans for power, Mr Farage said Reform is working on plans to revolutionise the civil service.
Reform have promised to axe 68,500 jobs in the civil service should they succeed at the polls and to reduce the salary bill by 17 per cent.
Mr Farage joked that the first civil servants to get the chop will be those ‘saying that they’re suffering through emotional trauma at the prospect of a Reform Government’.
But Reform has come in for criticism as Worcestershire county council, led by the party, looks set to issue England’s largest council tax rise this April.
Sir Keir’s Cabinet ministers rallied round their leader pledging loyalty – temporarily staving off any leadership challenge – after the PM revealed he had known about Peter Mandelson’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein before appointing him US ambassador
Mr Farage on Monday called Worcestershire county council a ‘total basket case’, adding ‘never once’ did Reform pledge to cut council tax.
While Reform has accepted many former Conservative MPs and ministers into its ranks in recent weeks, Mr Farage insisted yesterday there is a ‘clear dividing line’ between his party and Labour and the Tories – who both believe ‘the country is not broken’.
Recent Tory defector Robert Jenrick said at the rally his former party ‘don’t walk the same streets’ to see Britain’s decline.
Former Conservative MP Suella Braverman, meanwhile, said she had ‘had enough of Tory delusion.’
Hitting back at Reform, Conservative Kevin Hollinkrake said: ‘Nigel Farage is very good at shouting ‘Broken Britain’ from the sidelines, but very light on credible answers.
‘Reform’s entire pitch still boils down to his one-man-band protest politics and wish lists. It’s not a serious plan to govern.’
Reform’s first electoral test will be at the local elections on May 7 – a date the Reform leader said he approached with a ‘growing sense of optimism every day’.
