Reform’s very bad summer: Why Farage may be incapable of converting opposition to government

2025 was the year when Reform became the de facto opposition to Starmer’s increasingly unpopular government. By dominating the media through regular press conferences that capitalised on the charisma of Farage, they set the political narrative, attacking the government on most issues, but especially migration. Conservative impotence after their ruinous fourteen years in government meant that Reform became the pre-eminent insurgent force from the Right, allowing them to gain 677 council seats in 2025, and 1,452 in the 2026 elections respectively.

Reform emerged as the primary benefactors of widespread public disillusionment with the Labour-Tory binary after the system’s seeming inability to handle the political issues of the day. From Brexit, to COVID, Ukraine, Gaza, cost of living, Truss’s mini-budget, and Starmer’s incessant U-turns; continuously the two-party political establishment has failed in a crucial moment of political instability. Farage, then, has portrayed himself and his party as the remedy to this political inertia, as an ‘anti-establishment’ force, and had been broadly successful in doing so, with Reform the frontrunner in most political polls.

Yet the last few months have shown that being in opposition, and being a future government are two very different prospects. In Reform’s attempt to appear a serious party of government, fundamental contradictions have emerged, which have put them firmly on the back foot.

Obvious contradictions between the anti-establishment rhetoric of Reform and the makeup of the party have come to the fore as they have attempted to professionalise into a party fit for governing.

Several former Tory ministers, including Suella Braverman, Nadim Zahawi, Robert Jenrick, and Danny Kruger defected to Reform, following the political tide to the right with the Tories languishing in the polls. While this gave Reform a number of senior, recognisable figures with government experience (even if the government in question was trounced in 2024), these changes in personnel seem to undermine Reform’s anti-establishment image, running contrary to their constant critique of the two-party system’s impotence.

Furthermore, Jenrick and Braverman’s previous government positions (Braverman as Home Secretary, Jenrick as Immigration Minister) has attached two of Reform’s most recognisable names to an immigration policy, most pertinently the migrant hotels, which Reform has used as fuel for outrage among voters.

Moreover, Farage himself has become a political liability. After a career where he has seemed immune from scandal, the mainstream media has launched a coordinated assault on Farage’s personal finances. The Guardian revealed that in April 2024 crypto billionaire Christopher Harbourne gave Farage £5 million shortly before he changed his mind about running to be an MP. When pressed on this, he unconvincingly provided several half-baked answers: at first suggesting it was for security, then a thank you for Brexit and finally asserting he could do what he liked with it.

With this in the background, The Sunday Times recently revealed Farage’s connection to “Posh” George Cottrell, a convicted aristocratic fraudster and money launderer. Farage repeatedly failed to declare benefits provided by Cottrell, including security and social media staff, in the year prior to Farage becoming an MP.

These recent stories have re-emphasised the disparity between Farage’s personal wealth and his connections with the financial elite, and his claims to be a man of the people. Despite voicing the concerns of the common man, he lives a life of wealth not comparable to most. In 2017, it came out that he was collecting an MEP pension worth £73,000 while living in a £4 million Chelsea townhouse, despite publicly claiming of be ‘skint’. As of May 2026, he had earned over £2 million while being an MP. The stark contrast between Farage’s wealth and that of his constituency, Clacton, which contains Jaywick – voted the most deprived area of the UK in 2025 – is obvious.

Farage’s suite of scandals could not have come at a worse time for his party’s prospects. Labour’s ousting of the reviled Starmer in favour of Andy Burnham, seen broadly as a more personable politician and effective communicator than Starmer’s stilted approach, has seen them leapfrog Reform in the polls. Burnham seems to have ushered in a renewed sense of optimism for change; his style and northern quality seems to fit the ‘outsider-shaking-up-the-establishment’ trope far more than Farage, who is now, more than ever, tainted with the indelible stain of corruption.

The prospect of this shift in political strategy may explain Farage’s latest ploy. Instead of waiting for the Parliamentary standards Committee’s findings into his finances, he resigned as an MP, instigating a byelection in his constituency of Clacton, which Farage intends on running in. In his resignation announcement, Farage framed this contest as a ‘people versus the establishment’ election; the establishment that he claims have defamed and smeared his name to discredit the validity of the Reform movement. Again, Farage, the privately educated multi-millionaire, seeks to portray himself as the champion of the common man.

However, this time might be one pivot too many for Britain’s political chameleon. The major parties have called Farage’s bluff and have universally decided to not stand candidates in Clacton, meaning Farage’s most high-profile opponent will be everyone’s favourite politicised alien, Count Binface. Farage is now the figure of ridicule in Westminster and the national press, for, as ex-chancellor Rachel Reeves aptly put it, he is “spending his summer arguing with a bin”.

Farage’s stocks have never been lower, and finally his latest stunt is being seen for what it is: a self-interested and cowardly ploy to escape the consequences of his action. If not before, it is now abundantly clear that Farage has minimal interest in his constituents and only hopes to serve his ambition. It is a telling sign that a political move has backfired when a party must resort to labelling someone named Count Binface as an establishment figure.

With the Labour government controlling the media narrative with their pivot to Burnham, Farage-apathy has never been more evident in the British public.

What has been so effective about Burnham’s strategy has been that he has not spent time attacking Farage but has instead remained focused on policy and has let his farcical byelection do the talking. Never have Reform seemed so on the back foot. While this could be viewed as an opportune moment to gain a mandate for Burnham through an election, those in Labour may simply see it as beneficial to continue to let Reform collapse.

Cover Image from Wikimedia Commons