Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage said he is modelling his party’s strategy on that of Preston Manning, who led Canada’s Reform Party to form the official Opposition in the 1997 federal election.
Following a speech by Manning at Reform UK’s annual conference on Sept. 5 in Birmingham, England, Farage said Manning had been his “inspiration,” and that he named his party after the Canadian Reform Party.
“I saw what they did in Canada. It was transformational. They took it over, they destroyed the existing Progressive Party, they won government, and put Canada back on the right track,” Farage said.
Farage’s Reform UK is currently leading in the polls in the United Kingdom, with Politico’s polling aggregator indicating the party now has 31 percent support compared to 21 percent for the governing Labour Party, 17 percent for the Conservatives, 13 percent for the Liberal Democrats, and 10 percent for the Green Party. The next election is scheduled for August 2029, but could be held sooner if the prime minister dissolves Parliament early, or a vote of non-confidence passes.
Reform UK advocates for limiting immigration and enacting “re-migration” of illegal immigrants back to their home countries, cutting government spending and foreign aid, reducing taxes, getting rid of “net zero” environmental policies, and enacting stricter criminal justice policies.
During his speech at the conference, Manning said he had been invited by Farage to share the story of the Canadian Reform Party and provide “some insights from our experience that will be helpful to you.” Manning said his party was created in 1987 out of frustration with the two established Canadian political parties.
Veteran politician Preston Manning speaks at a conference about the Reform Party, which he founded and led, in Ottawa on March 22, 2023. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld
During the 1988 federal election, the Reform Party finished second in 11 ridings, but did not win any seats. The Reform Party gained a seat in the House of Commons following a 1989 byelection, and in 1993 the party won 51 additional seats in the election and the Progressive Conservatives fell from 154 seats to just two.
The Reform Party initially emerged as a party advocating for the interests of Western provinces, but gathered more following as it championed reduction in government spending and took on other social and fiscal conservative positions. The Reform Party went on to become the official Opposition following the 1997 election.
The modern Conservative Party was formed in 2003 out of a merger between the Progressive Conservatives and the Canadian Alliance, which was the successor of the Reform Party.
Manning told the audience that in many countries, there has recently been a “tectonic shift in the political landscape,” with a move away from left-right politics to a “vertical axis of bottom-up democratic populism versus aristocratic elitism.” Manning also said that his former party should be a “source of inspiration” to Reform UK.
“There is no reason why a bottom-up democratic movement such as Reform UK, utilizing these same tools of democracy in the very country that gave them birth, cannot achieve similar success and greater success than what we achieved,” Manning said.
Reform UK, which was initially called the Brexit Party, was founded by Farage and Catherine Blaiklock in 2018 to advocate for a no-deal Brexit. The party won the most seats in the 2019 European Parliament election, but did not win any seats in the 2019 UK general election.
The party was renamed Reform UK in January 2021, and Farage stepped down as leader in March. Farage resumed leadership in June 2024, and the party won five seats in the 2024 election, but one MP later stepped down after previously admitting to business misconduct.
