Merchandise on sale at Reform UK's party conference includes one unfortunate note

The laughs keep on coming this party conference season, as while the Liberal Democrats made leader Ed Davey take part in more bizarre PR stunts (jet skiing and volleyball this time), Reform UK’s conference in Birmingham this weekend has also made headlines for very weird reasons.

In fact, in his keynote speech, leader Nigel Farage referenced Davey’s party and said Reform needs to “model ourselves on the Liberal Democrats” – yes, the political party which still has rejoining the European Union (which Farage successfully campaigned for the UK to leave in 2016) as one of its “longer-term” objectives.

Rather than commit to “cascading down waterfalls”, the ex-Ukip frontman said: “The Liberal Democrats build branches, the Liberal Democrats win seats at district, county and unitary levels. The Liberal Democrats build on that strength; the Liberal Democrats put literature and leaflets through doors repeatedly in their target areas.

“And despite the fact they haven’t got any policies at all – in fact the whole thing’s really rather vacuous, isn’t it – they managed with a vote much lower than ours to win 72 seats in parliament.”

Elsewhere, Great Yarmouth MP Rupert Lowe claimed young people with mental health issues were “submitting to their problems, rather than dealing with them”; deputy leader and Boston and Skegness MP Richard Tice slammed the “extremist cult” trying to reach net zero (despite more than a third of people in a YouGov poll using that word to describe the party); and Ashfield MP Lee Anderson ripping up a TV license fee reminder on stage in an unusual protest.

“I want my country back,” the ex-Tory proclaimed.

Yet, despite talking about ‘saving Britain’, caps emblazoned with those very words – along with T-shirts featuring the Reform UK logo – sold at the party conference were… well… manufactured in China and Bangladesh respectively.

Unsurprisingly, this particular detail has seen the right-wing party subjected to considerable ridicule online:

Nevertheless, Reform seems pretty keen on letting people speak their mind – indeed, their “contract” for July’s general election saw them commit to passing a “comprehensive free speech bill” if they ever get into power.

And they haven’t shut down that possibility, either, as conference attendees have gone so far as to suggest Farage could be the next prime minister.

Except, for all the talk on free speech, Byline Times reporter Josiah Mortimer and climate journalist Adam Barnett of DeSmog had their applications for media accreditation for the conference rejected by Reform UK.

Mortimer told The National: “A party that constantly touts itself as a champion of free speech seems to be blocking journalists who have scrutinised it. They’re free to do that, of course, but it does make their claims opposing ‘deplatforming’ and opposing ‘cancel culture’ ring a bit hollow.

“The decision to bar Byline Times and DeSmog – and potentially others too – from the conference looks pretty cowardly. You could say it’s a two-tier policy on the media.”

Yes, that appears to be a dig at Farage’s claim of “two-tier” policing in the UK, a conspiracy which saw the MP shouted down by colleagues for mentioning it in the Commons earlier this month.

And this isn’t the only humiliating moment to hit Farage and Reform UK this week, as #FarageRiots continues to trend on Twitter/X this weekend while the party tries to focus attention on its conference.

Meanwhile on Thursday, after appearing on Nick Ferrari’s show on LBC, station favourite James O’Brien delivered a “brutal” takedown of the Brexiteer while the party leader was still in the room.

He asked his listeners: “Well, there’s a lot to get through today. For example, have you ever had violent race riots named after you or indeed been accused by the head of the Met of emboldening the racist thugs responsible?

“Have you ever cited a self-described misogynist facing rape and people trafficking charges in Romania as a trustworthy news source for events in the UK or described yourself as part of a similar phenomenon to him?

“Have any newly-elected MPs spent more time in America getting binned off by Donald Trump than they have in their own constituency?

“And what would you call someone who answers yes to all those questions?”

Ouch.

To make matters worse for Farage, he told Ferrari that he had been discouraged by parliamentary security from holding constituency surgeries in Clacton, only for it to be reported that the office of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle has “no record” of saying that to the Reform MP.

What a mess.

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