Nigel Farage has told Reform UK members they must be ready for an early general election, following the resignation of deputy prime minister Angela Rayner.
The Reform leader took to the stage for his keynote conference speech three hours earlier than planned after Rayner announced her resignation.
“We’re about to witness a big rift in the Labour Party,” he told cheering supporters, “I think there’s every chance now of a general election happening in 2027 and we must be ready for that moment.”
He announced the setting up of a new department to prepare for government, with former Reform chairman Zia Yusuf as head of policy.
He said Reform would “set out some serious cuts to the welfare budget” shortly and that if elected his party would “stop the boats within two weeks”, scrap “harmful, wasteful” net zero polices and make Britain safer with “zero tolerance policing”.
He revealed he was planning to have lunch with the Albanian prime minister to discuss possible migrant returns agreements.
But the speech was more about firing up the Reform troops than setting out policies, as he sought to capitalise on the party’s recent local election victories and consistent lead in the national opinion polls.
“We are seeing the rise of the turquoise tide,” he told supporters, who had been summoned to the hall three hours earlier than expected over the Birmingham venue’s public address system.
In another surprise move, he broke off from his speech to introduce Nadine Dorris, who defected to Reform on Thursday, to make a brief speech.
After a break, Farage returned to claim that Reform was the “last chance we have to get this country back on track”.
“All I can do is to promise you that I will give this everything,” he added, claiming “no one cares more about the state of this country than I do” and “I’m determined to do something about it.”
Earlier in the speech he hit back at claims that Reform was a “one man band” but said it had to more to prepare for power.
“In order to get all these policies brought together under one roof – and it’s a massive workload – I’m going to ask Zia Yusuf, from this day, to be our head of policy to bring all of this together.
“I will, in the next few weeks, open up a new department within the party, leaning on the experience that Nadine (Dorries) and others have – and others will come.
“Others with experience will come. Don’t worry about that, and we will open a department for preparing for government so that when we win, we can hit the ground running.”
