Reform replacing 'old fuddy-duddy' Tory party, says Farage

Reform UK is replacing the "old, fuddy-duddy" Conservative party, leader Nigel Farage has told the BBC.

Senior Conservatives including sitting MPs Suella Braverman, Robert Jenrick and Danny Kruger, as well as former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, have defected to Reform in recent months.

Farage now has more of former prime minister Liz Truss's cabinet in his party than Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has in her current shadow cabinet.

But when asked by the BBC's Nick Robinson on Radio 4's Political Thinking if this meant Reform was morphing into the latest version of the Conservatives, Farage said it was "no surprise" MPs were choosing to jump ship.

Predicting that May's Scottish, Welsh and English council elections would bring a collapse in support for the two biggest parties in British politics, Farage said the Tories were finished as a national party.

"We've replaced the old fuddy-duddy existing Conservative Party with a new force on the centre-right, that's got a bit more energy, a bit more enthusiasm, a little bit more fire," he said.

When Jenrick jumped ship in mid-January, Farage had also promised a mysterious Labour defection was imminent.

One month on, he was asked whether he was still expecting a Labour figure to join Reform and responded: "There are going to be several."

He added: "I haven't got a magic wand. Things don't always happen immediately, but it will happen."

The next electoral test will be the Gorton and Denton by-election in Greater Manchester on Thursday 26 February, with Farage hoping his candidate Matthew Goodwin could win the party's ninth parliamentary seat.

Robinson highlighted how Goodwin had said some UK-born people from minority ethnic backgrounds were not always British and being British "takes more than a piece of paper" on the campaign trail.

Asked how he would define Britishness, Farage said the test for "our own people" was whether people "instinctively" confirm their identity.

"You've got to instinctively respond 'I'm British' to be part of it," he said. "If you're not responding 'I'm British', you're not part of it."

He added: "It's about your priorities -- what is the thing that you really believe you're part of... Nationality really is an extension of being part of the family."

This did not exclude non-white people, Farage said, claiming Reform won more votes from the Black, Asian and minority Ethnic community than the Liberal Democrats in the 2024 general election.

Instead, he pointed to a "Marxist... poisoning of the minds", having previously criticised schools and universities for teaching "twisted interpretations" of British history.

"I think the concern and the worry is there are a lot of people here who have been brought up to actually loathe the country," he said.

Farage also voiced support for Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who on Wednesday said the UK had been "colonised by immigrants".

Sir Jim apologised for "offending some people" with his language after the prime minister described his comments as "offensive and wrong", although he maintained an "open debate" on the matter was needed.

Farage told Political Thinking his comments were "accurate and right", if you "take the word colonise out".

The Reform leader described east London, where there are signs in foreign languages, as an example of where "large parts of our country have become unrecognisable", adding: "What Jim is saying is that mass migration has done us harm and made us poorer and I think he is absolutely right."

A Labour spokesperson said a "staggering" 26 former Conservative MPs and "countless" former Tory councillors had joined Reform.

"How do we know that Reform would decimate public services and make people poorer?" they added. "Because it's full of the same old failed Tories that did it all before. You simply can't trust them."

The BBC has contacted the Conservatives for comment.

A full list of candidates for Gorton and Denton can be found here.

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