What can Reform do to shift the idea it is the ‘Nigel Party’? – UK Times

Labour breathed a huge sigh of relief after a surprise victory in the Scottish parliament by-election in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse. Senior Scottish Labour figures had feared coming second or even third behind Reform UK; for once, it wasn’t expectation management.

Labour insiders admit privately the tight three-horse race confirms that Reform UK is on the map in Scotland, previously hostile territory for Nigel Farage. “Something is up when you knock on doors in Scotland and get Reform talking points thrown at you,” one minister told me.

Reform’s advance will make Labour’s task of ousting the SNP in next May’s Scottish parliament elections much harder. After Keir Starmer’s landslide last year, when Labour won 37 of Scotland’s 57 seats, the party had high hopes of ending SNP rule north of the border after 19 years. But an unpopular government at Westminster has dragged Labour down; it has lost one in six of its 2024 Scottish voters to Farage’s party. Reform is also on course to do well in next May’s elections to the Welsh parliament, where Labour has called the shots since devolution in 1998.

Although Reform had hoped to come at least second in Hamilton, it can still claim momentum in Scotland. A much bigger setback for Farage than its third place was the resignation of Zia Yusuf as party chair. After Reform’s sweeping gains in last month’s local elections in England and the Runcorn parliamentary by-election, Farage said: “We would not have done […] what we did without him.” Now, Farage is dismissing Yusuf’s claim to be responsible for Reform’s meteoric rise. Tough game, politics.

The energetic, telegenic Yusuf had made a good start in professionalising Reform – something Farage spectacularly failed to do as leader of Ukip and the Brexit Party. As a Muslim, Yusuf gave Reform cover against allegations of racism, but received nasty abuse on social media from some Reform supporters. Yusuf had plans to attract Muslim voters and that is why he was angered by Reform MP Sarah Pochin’s call for a ban on the burqa.

However, there were wider reasons for his departure. He felt sidelined after being put in charge of the Elon Musk-style Doge unit in councils run by Reform. The 38-year-old multi-millionaire entrepreneur didn’t suffer fools gladly, and his abrasive style upset some at Reform’s Millbank Tower headquarters (Labour’s base when it won its 1997 landslide). He was blamed by critics for escalating the feud with former Reform MP Rupert Lowe.

They complained that Yusuf was not a team player – a bit rich when that label applies to Farage in spades. The departure is a reminder of Farage’s achilles heel: he falls out with senior figures in every party or campaign he is involved in. The loss of Yusuf will make it harder to make the Doge exercise work. This matters because the party needs to make its claim credible that vast savings can be made from cutting waste to be a contender for power.

Crucially, Farage cannot be a one-man band – the “Nigel Party”, as it’s dubbed at Westminster. He gives the impression of wanting to be the only tall poppy, but will need a cabinet-in-waiting to convince voters his party could run the country.

However, other parties should not get carried away with Farage’s woes. Voters are less bothered about Reform infighting than the Westminster village. Conservative claims that Reform is imploding are wishful thinking, and their humiliating fourth place in Hamilton illustrates their dire position. Reform remains a real threat to Keir Starmer’s hopes of a second term.

Labour is banking on turning the next election into a presidential contest between Starmer and Farage. Labour insiders call it a “nosepeg” strategy: they hope left-of-centre voters who have given up on Labour after its poor first year will hold their nose and back Starmer to keep Farage out rather than defect to the Liberal Democrats, Greens or independents. Labour plans a parallel move in Scotland: “Vote Farage, get SNP.”

As my colleague John Rentoul noted, Labour should attack Farage for his “fantasy economics” rather than being a “privately-educated stockbroker”. Polling by More in Common shows that voters believe Starmer had a more privileged upbringing than Farage, and believe the Reform leader speaks more for the working class than the prime minister. Starmer allies insist the lesson has been learnt.

Starmer’s welcome moves to tackle child poverty and his U-turn on the winter fuel allowance suggest he realises he must also make a positive appeal to left-of-centre voters and not merely ape Reform with tough language on immigration, which such voters don’t like. But he will need to go further, with an economic reset including tax rises, to pay for his new social justice commitments and avoid the impression that Wednesday’s spending review will mean “austerity 2.0”.

Labour’s approach has dangers: in attacking Farage head-on, some Labour MPs worry, the party risks amplifying his message and building him up further. There are no easy roads to a second Labour term.