Reform UK and Nigel Farage have had a bruising couple of weeks. Clearly, those demands to democratise are not going to go away.
Yet, while there are clear disagreements, the shared beliefs across the patriotic right are stronger than ever.
Not least is the overwhelming sentiment that Reform is too important a political force to fail. As Patrick O’Flynn wrote on Twitter:
“I’m not even in Reform, but I tell you this: if Reform divides and collapses, we lose nearly all our leverage over the establishment—on everything from immigration control to net zero, from woke madness to weak law and order. Sort it out, chaps.”
So we must begin in earnest to find ways to heal the rifts and prevent this from happening again. Ideally, these should be no-brainers that everyone can agree on.
When I met Nigel late last year, he told me of his fond memories as a trader at the LME. This was back in the day of open-outcry trading floors. It was huge fun. But the real miracle of live trading floors is that you had hundreds of young, ambitious alpha males competing aggressively with each other, yet fighting and bitterness rarely broke out. The reason for this may surprise you: refereeing the trading floor was a no-nonsense retired Lieutenant-Colonel. A patriotic war veteran who had seen action, commanded respect, and knew all about discipline.
When two traders got into a tiff, he would take them off for a long lunch with a few choice bottles of claret and sort it out. Sure enough, by the time they returned, all was forgotten.
This is exactly what Reform needs: a strong Chief of Staff who can keep all those big egos in check and keep them united. A good chief of staff ensures disputes never break out into the open, and that all the big players act as a strong, united force for the country.
Moreover, that would take some of the firefighting off Nigel. The risk is that the party leader, for all his brilliance, has too many plates spinning. In addition to running Reform, he has his constituency, his extensive media engagements, and his relationship with the White House. Interestingly, the call for a strong chief of staff has come from one of Nigel’s closest allies across the Atlantic, Raheem Kassam:
“The problem is everyone has his number and any time anyone has a problem in the party they immediately call Nigel, and drag him into their fights. If he doesn’t side with them, or tries to stay neutral, they lash out. I’ve seen it a thousand times.
“If anything, he needs a militant chief of staff to police his time and keep him above the fray. This is the next prime minister we’re talking about now, not the MEP for the South East anymore. They need to get his team right and support him wholeheartedly. No one has put more into this movement than him. We owe him our loyalty.”
A respected military veteran would be especially good. They understand discipline, and they also understand how to keep macho men in check. Their decades of heroic service automatically command respect, and they could strengthen Reform’s credibility on defence policy—one area where they have been outflanked by Labour, who have cast them (albeit unfairly) as Putin sympathisers.
With a strong Chief of Staff in place, Reform could welcome back its big beasts (including Rupert Lowe and Ben Habib) and open its arms to figures from the Conservative Party or elsewhere, without anyone feeling threatened. This would be a valuable step in uniting the right. No individual is more important than the imperative of rescuing our country.
By Andrew Hunt.
Andrew Hunt is the Great British PAC‘s Chief Policy Officer. Author Andrew graduated from Cambridge with a Law degree in 2003. He worked in TV production before moving into finance. It was here that he became fascinated by how personal investors and small companies could turn negligible resources into enormous fortunes. Applying the same mindset and principles, Hunt was able to retire in his thirties. He now invests in interesting projects which aim to make the world a better place and runs a radical centre-right environmental think tank. He is also the author of Better Value Investing.
Main Image: For illustration purposes only. Image created on Grok.
