I went to a Reform UK rally. Here’s what I saw
Rupert Lowe railed against diversity schemes and asylum seekers, while Nigel Farage tried to tone things down. Will the party atmosphere last?
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Parklands Quendon Hall is the kind of place where romance blooms — where newlyweds toast a bright future under chandeliers while guests stroll through perfectly manicured gardens. But on this particular Friday evening, there were no wedding bells. Instead, this idyllic setting was hosting a rally for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party.
I was there, on behalf of ITV News, to absorb it all.
It was an unusual setting for such an event — but perhaps even more remarkable was the turnout. The hall was packed, buzzing with energy, as people chose to spend their Friday night not unwinding with friends or catching up on Netflix, but engaging in politics. The choice of venue was no accident either. Nestled in Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch’s North West Essex constituency, it was a not-so-subtle signal from Reform UK that the party is targeting Tory seats, and a lot of them.
Inside, the atmosphere was almost like a party. Music played, drinks flowed and the air thrummed with anticipation. Activists and supporters mingled, discussing not just policies but shared experiences and views of the state of the country. I asked some of the attendees what had drawn them there on a Friday evening. One woman said: “I just think Nigel Farage is the only one who speaks common sense.” Another, a lifelong Conservative voter, spoke of her growing frustration with the party. “They’ve had so much time to fix things, and look where we are. Reform is the only real option.” Interestingly this was not a crowd of quiet, disillusioned voters merely dipping their toes into the waters of political rebellion. They were fully immersed, energised, and convinced that the mainstream parties had abandoned them.
The speeches began with hard-edged rhetoric. Rupert Lowe, Reform UK MP for Great Yarmouth, took the microphone to target policies on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). “We should call DEI what it is — anti-white racism,” he claimed, echoing a favourite talking point of US president Donald Trump to roaring approval. He then turned to illegal immigration, lambasting the government for housing “men, often from alien cultures that hold no respect for women, in luxury accommodation at taxpayers’ expense”.
Many outside the venue would have taken offence at these suggestions — asylum accommodation is far from luxurious and Lowe’s reference to “alien cultures” echoes words used by Badenoch last year that were labelled dangerous and ignorant by a Muslim MP. But inside the room, his words were enthusiastically received.
Then Lee Anderson — a one-time Labour councillor who became a Tory MP before defecting to Reform UK — took the stage. He honed in on the small boat crossings, ridiculing the idea that those arriving were genuine refugees. “There is no war in France,” he said. “Even if they were fleeing a war, what kind of men leave women and children behind? I do not want these people in my country.”
Then came the main act. The star of the show, Farage, spoke without notes for about half an hour. Unlike the others, he toned down his language, taking a more measured approach. “We will never judge anybody by their colour, their religion, their gender, their sexual preference,” he said. “We want to live in a free, meritocratic Britain.”
Farage knows no fringe party has ever won an election, or become the official opposition. If he is to achieve his ambition of taking Reform UK further, I suspect he will need to begin issuing concrete formal policies that are thoroughly costed. And his language indeed suggests a more pragmatic approach.
All the same, the polls have been reflecting the growing popularity of Reform UK in its existing guise. Several over the last few weeks have placed the party ahead of the Tories, while YouGov poll published on Monday had it leading both Labour and the Conservatives for the first time. As Farage was speaking, he was keen to emphasise that Reform is not just a threat to the Tories: it is a problem for Labour, too.
At the 2024 general election, Reform UK came second in 98 constituencies. That is a huge platform to build on. Pro-Reform pollster Matthew Goodwin has done some analysis on the top 100 seats that could be in play for the party at the next election and 64 are currently held by Labour. This is not just an insurgency on the right — it is an upheaval that threatens the political landscape of Britain as a whole.
Labour insiders are taking note. Several have told me about their concerns that Reform UK could hit them hard at the ballot box. One minister I spoke to acknowledged the warning signs but remained defiant when I mentioned the atmosphere and excitement I had witnessed at the rally I went to. “We had a little bit of that in the Labour party for a while,” they said, referring to the years under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership when membership swelled and Corbyn himself was rapturously received at rallies and even on stage at Glastonbury Festival. “And the results were very clear at the election. We were defeated very badly.”
Similarly, senior Tories have privately acknowledged the threat Reform UK poses, though publicly, Badenoch referred dismissively to Reform UK as a “protest party” during a broadcast interview on the day of the rally. Reform UK may disagree with this characterisation — but will relish being underestimated, publicly anyway, by its opponents. The party’s activists and supporters told me repeatedly during the rally that Reform UK is working to reshape British politics. After what we’ve seen in the US with Donald Trump and the Maga movement, coupled with the growing dissatisfaction with both major parties here in the UK, Farage and those close to him genuinely believe they can surprise everyone over the next four years.
Shehab Khan is an award-winning presenter and political correspondent for ITV News.
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