By Searchlight’s reporter inside the Birmingham rally

Nigel Farage arrived on the stage of the Reform UK rally in the Arena Birmingham on a JCB accompanied by a live band, dry ice and to a rapturous standing ovation. A jubilant Farage claimed that 10,000 people were in attendance (Friday 28 March 2025). Sitting in the auditorium that night his claim was not one I would challenge. To my knowledge this is the biggest far right gathering seen in Britain since Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists 10,000-strong rally at Olympia in 1934.

The mood of the Reform UK party activists was high. Every major poll shows Reform’s share of the vote as higher than the Conservative Party and either just above or just below Labour’s. Last year Reform UK stood in 12% of the council seats that were up for grabs. They claim that on 1 May they will be standing in all 1,600 seats, in all six mayoral contests and in the Runcorn by-election. Runcorn is Labour’s 18^th safest seat and a good result there would give Reform the springboard it needs to entrench itself inside the British electoral system.

One objective of the rally was to launch Reform’s May council election campaign and to create a party with a mass membership and strong local branches. The seating in the Arena was divided into 10 regions and further divided into 51 localities. As you entered the venue you were directed to your allocated region and there you had a meet and greet with your local Reform election candidates. You were also encouraged to join your local branch and handed as much election material as you wanted.

The stage had Banksy style with life size installations erected on it. They included a pub, betting shop, barber shop, bus shelter, cinema, phone box and Reform UK battle bus. Throughout the evening these would be used as props for the hugely expensive and professionally run rally.

The majority of the crowd were smartly dressed couples as if they were going on a Friday night out. Worryingly there were lots of young people (18 -25) in attendance. There were, as you would expect, very few black and Asian people. Many of these Reform supporters arrived shortly after 5pm and did not leave until the rally until its end after 10pm. 

‘Tommy Robinson’ supporters

Dotted throughout the audience were people wearing red MAGA baseball caps and the Reform turquoise “Make Britain Great Again” version. Also present were a handful of vocal ‘Tommy Robinson’ supporters heckling racist invective at the platform speakers.

The host of the rally was former Conservative parliamentary candidate, TV presenter, and current Deputy Leader of Reform, David Bull.

The rally was divided into two halves, the first saw Bull engage in some knockabout anti-Tory/Labour banter. He then briefly introduced the crowd to some of Reform’s younger council election candidates and three of the four Reform UK MPs – James Murdock (South Basildon), Richard Tice (Boston and Skegness), Lee Anderson (Ashfield). There was no mention of the expulsion of Rupert Lowe, the suspended Reform MP. The row does not seem to have impacted on the fortunes of the party.

Unlike other Reform rallies the first half was a relatively sombre affair and only sparked into life when it was announced that the party’s membership had topped 200,000. This surpasses the membership of the Conservative Party, which the House of Commons Library states is 176,000 and falling.

What type of party is Reform UK?

In his speech Farage claimed that he had relinquished his sole ownership of Reform and had handed over his shares to the party. Secure in the belief that Reform would not be taken over by “extremists”, Farage said it was time to create a party with a democratically elected leadership. However, as we have pointed put before, this claim is open to question: https://www.searchlightmagazine.com/2025/02/tice-sliced-and-diced-as-farage-and-yusuf-tighten-grip-on-reform-uk/

But that still leaves the question what type of party is Reform? It is clearly led by rich, ex members of the Conservative Party, fervent supporters of Brexit who coalesced around Farage. Reform is a hybrid formation with an ideology shaped by the extreme right in the Conservative Party and by Trump’s version of populism. While not as extreme as Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz movement, Reform UK is a far-right populist party which uses racism to motivate its electoral base.

 Secondly as Reform’s electoral fortunes rise, Farage is scrambling to soften his image, distancing himself from earlier political positions such as his support for Putin. He has distanced himself from the Trump administration’s stance on Ukraine. Farage states that he wants nothing to do extreme nationalists and fascist type groups like UKIP and has pledged that he will not let Tommy Robinson and his street thugs join Reform.   

The audience also whooped and cheered when Arron Banks was brought onto the stage, and he announced he was going to stand as mayor of West of England for Reform. Banks has been linked in the media to Russian officials and the Trump election campaign and has made eye watering donations to the Conservative Party, UKIP and Leave UK.

Incoherent monologue

The second half of the rally was a different affair. First up was ex-Tory MP Dame Andrea Jenkyns. Standing for Reform for the position of Mayor of Greater Lincoln, this GB journalist’s speech focused on anti-migrant, anti-state regulation, anti-Sadiq Khan and anti-trans themes. She got her biggest cheer when she said, “I was the only MP on the parliamentary health committee to argue there are only two genders”. 

Arron Bank’s was introduced for a second time, his incoherent monologue provided little insight, other than he admitted that he is not popular in Bristol, but if he was elected, he was going to “fish out the statues and put them back where they belong”.

Next up was Reform MP Lee Anderson, wearing a “Make Britain Great Again” cap, the pound-shop Trump strutted onstage to the football chant “Here We Go”. His job was to stoke up the racist and anti-socialist rhetoric and the audience lapped it up. This ex-Labour councillor who defected to the Tory Party launched a tirade against the anti-racist protestors who were picketing the conference saying, “I have got three things to say to you – get a life, get a job and get a bath”.

‘Get the migrants out’

Then it was the turn of Muslims, Anderson made the outrageous claim that there was, “no such thing as Islamophobia – it’s a made-up word” he declared. Refugees were next, “Get the migrants out, kick them all out because they are trashing our country”.  

Lastly, he took a pot shot at teachers’ unions, saying, Reform would “root out these Marxist agitators from our schools” He ended saying, “I want my country back…I want to live in a country where kids can go to school and not be told they could be 72 different genders and be told constantly they may have been born in the wrong body. This nonsense must stop.” His reward was a prolonged standing ovation.

But it was Farage that most of the audience had waited patiently for four hours to hear. I assumed that Farage was going to play soft cop to Anderson’s tough cop. And in some senses, his speech did focus on favoured “populist” issues like potholes and the “elites” in the Tory and Labour Party. He promised to reverse the disability benefit cuts, reinstate the winter fuel allowance and scrap inheritance tax.

But behind this populist smokescreen he pursued a much more Trumpian agenda. He stated that he would pull Britain out of the European Court of Human Rights, fund the NHS through private insurance and slash the state. Giving a hat tip to Elon Musk, Farage stated, “Britain’s state has grown out of all proportion… we need a British form of Doge [Department of Government Efficiency], as Elon Musk has got in America. Let’s have a British Doge”. 

‘Send them back’

To chants of “Send them back”, Farage promised to deport any refugee arriving in Britain by boat. Farage also claimed that the teachers’ union, the NEU, was led by “a Marxist who hates our country”.   As you would expect, the speech went down a storm, he received a standing ovation and the crowd shouting “Nigel, Nigel, Nigel”.

The rally demonstrated the growing confidence of the party rank and file who believe they are on the road to victory. It also showed the efforts the Reform leadership are making to create a mass far right party. One that is modelled on Trump and the ideas of the extreme right that used to be in the Tory Party.

The urgent task facing anti-racists

The sheer scale of the Reform rally should sound the alarm for anti-racists across Britain. The rapid growth of the far right in the US and Europe is a reality and Britain is not immune from this development.

The only bright light on a dark night was the 500 strong anti-Reform counter protest and festival outside the Arena Birmingham. It was also great to see the ad hackers Led by Donkeys take over Reform UK’s giant electronic screen outside and put up the slogan “Vladimir and Nigel welcome you to Birmingham”.

Reform believes Farage is on his way to becoming PM. Farage believes his stars are aligning, gloating that the Labour government is deeply unpopular, and the Conservatives are in rapid decline and that has given Reform the space to come through the middle. Reform really believes it can replace the Tories as Britain’s main party of the right.  Lee Anderson even boasted that he “wanted to destroy the Conservative Party”.

It is right that protests should take place outside every Reform rally and conference. Anti-racists must produce hard hitting propaganda that exposes Reform’s vile policies, and their racism. Reform are not in the business of taking control of the streets but instead focus on winning elections and constructing a professional electoral machine and local branches.

Not only do we have to undermine them at a national level we are going to have to campaign in every constituency and ward to defeat them. Searchlight is committed to working with everyone that wants to defeat Reform.