Nigel Farage today unveiled a Reform ‘shadow cabinet’ for the first time, with ex-Tory minister Robert Jenrick handed a key role.
Mr Jenrick, who defected to Reform from the Conservatives last month, has been made Reform’s ‘shadow chancellor’ to take on Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
Three other roles were announced this morning, with Skegness MP and former leader Richard Tice in line to be deputy prime minister if Reform wins the next election.
He would also be in charge of a ‘super department’ covering business, trade and energy.
Party chairman Zia Yusuf, whose parents were immigrants, was unveiled as ‘shadow home secretary’ with a brief to tackle legal and illegal migration, despite not being one of Reform’s eight MPs or a member of the House of Lords.
And Mr Jenrick’s fellow Tory turncoat Suella Braverman has taken on a role as education and equalities spokeswoman – and said one of her first jobs in government would be to scrap the job of equalities minister.
Mr Farage has been facing calls to sort out a proper frontbench team, now he fronts a team of eight MPs, to knock down claims he is the leader of a one-man-band.
He admitted today that Reform needed the ‘experience’ brought to his team by former Tories.
But Conservative chairman Kevin Hollinrake said: ‘After months of infighting and leaks, Nigel Farage has unveiled a front bench dominated by ex-Conservatives – a line-up that looks more like a tribute act to the old Conservative Party than a credible alternative.’
Nigel Farage today unveiled the core of a Reform ‘shadow cabinet’ for the first time, with ex-Tory minister Robert Jenrick handed a key role
Mr Jenrick, who defected to Reform from the Conservatives last month, has been linked with the party’s treasury role, shadowing Chancellor Rachel Reeves
Mr Farage has been facing calls to sort out a proper frontbench team, now he fronts a team of eight MPs, to knock down claims he is the leader of a one-man-band
Party chairman Zia Yusuf, whose parents were immigrants, was unveiled as ‘shadow home secretary’ with a brief to tackle legal and illegal migration, despite not being one of Reform’s eight MPs or a member of the House of Lords
Mr Jenrick was previously a Cabinet minister as Housing Secretary under Boris Johnson and was Conservative shadow justice secretary until he jumped ship.
But his only Treasury experience was an 18-month stint as Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, the most junior minister, under Theresa May.
Today he thanked Mr Farage for allowing him to oppose Ms Reeves, labelling her an economic ‘wrecking ball’.
He said Reform would put together ‘the most comprehensive plan of any political party’ to ‘fix Britain’s broken economy’.
He is not the official shadow chancellor, as that role is held by the Conservatives’ Mel Stride. And the same is true of his fellow frontbenchers.
But smaller parties have previously labelled their frontbench teams the ‘shadow cabinet’, including the Liberal Democrats and the SNP.
Mr Farage told the audience in London that Reform was now ‘the real opposition to Labour’.
Mr Yusuf said ‘more people have turned up on our beaches uninvited in the last seven years than stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day.’
Mr Yusuf added: ‘Those people, instead of being detained and deported, have been given free accommodation, free meals, free access to healthcare, free taxis, free leisure activities at the expense of the British people, to the tune of tens of billions of pounds every single year.’
He described the situation as the ‘the most profound betrayal of the British electorate in history’.
He added: ‘If you are in this country illegally right now and you are watching this, I want to be crystal clear: as Reform’s home secretary, I will ensure that you are deported from these lands.’
Mr Tice said the party would create a new ‘super department’ in Government with an aim of getting growth of up to 4 per cent.
Mr Tice, who is the party’s deputy leader, said the party would focus on using oil and gas to help boost the economy and would abandon net-zero targets.
He said the party would also create a ‘serious’ British wealth fund.
Mr Tice said: ‘If we achieve those things then we can reindustrialise Britain, we can reenergise Britain, we can renew Britain and yes, we can rebuild Britain. These are absolutely essential to create growth.’
It comes as a new poll today suggested Reform’s poll lead has been cut to just five points.
YouGov had Farage’s party on 24 per cent, down three points in a week. Labour and the Tories are unchanged on 19 per cent and 18 per cent respectively, with the Greens up a point on 17 per cent.
Labour Party chairwoman Anna Turley said Nigel Farage’s front bench appointments had ‘failed Britain before’ and would do the same again.
Skegness MP and former Reform leader Richard Tice in line to be deputy prime minister if Reform wins the next election
Mr Jenrick’s fellow Tory turncoat Suella Braverman has taken on a role as education and equalities spokeswoman
Ms Turley said: ‘Farage’s top team of failed Tories spent over 3,000 days inflicting untold damage on our country in government, trashing our economy, hammering families’ mortgages, and leaving our borders open.
‘They failed Britain before – they’d do the same again under Reform.’
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper described Reform’s front bench as a ‘Reform-Tory ‘Fifty Shades of Blue’ love-in’.
She said: ‘Robert Jenrick voted for Liz Truss’s economic disaster of a mini-budget, now he wants to do the same damage to the economy all over again.
‘Nigel Farage is welcome to give his colleagues new name badges but it won’t change the opinion of the country, that Conservatives, current or former, are totally unfit to govern.’
