How much of a danger is Reform UK to the Conservative Party - An expert explains
Reform UK, a political party emerging from the Brexit movement's aftermath, steadily rises in various opinion polls. They vow to field a candidate in each constituency in the upcoming general election, a move that may pose a big threat to the Conservatives.
Transcript
00:00 So UK reform, or reform UK, I always get that mixed up, is the sort of, if you like, campaigning
00:08 for a radical transformation in the political landscape because they believe that the current
00:14 system does not serve people well.
00:17 Its main claim would be that we're being overrun by immigrants, whether they be illegal, coming
00:23 in boats, or those who are coming through legal means, which of course we've heard a
00:28 lot about in recent times.
00:30 So that is the thing that it'll be campaigning on.
00:33 And what is happening is you're getting a lot of very disgruntled conservatives who
00:37 are sort of migrating and sort of deserting the Conservative Party.
00:41 So there's a real concern amongst the sort of the current administration led by Rishi
00:45 Sadak that sort of reform UK are going to deprive them of a number of seats that they
00:50 might otherwise have won.
00:52 Reform UK, previously the Brexit Party, is a right-wing populist party founded by Nigel
00:57 Farage in 2018.
00:59 It initially focused on Euroscepticism and Brexit.
01:03 After Brexit, it became anti-lockdown during COVID-19 and later expanded its platform to
01:10 address broader right-wing populist themes during the cost of living crisis from 2022.
01:16 Well, as I said a moment ago, of course, what it will do potentially is to split the vote.
01:23 Those people that sort of might sort of vote for Conservatives because they feel there's
01:26 no other choice, now they sort of feel that there is a sort of a viable alternative for
01:32 a party which is coming out with what they regard as truly Conservative policies because
01:37 they certainly believe that the Conservative Party in recent times, and I include Boris
01:42 Johnson, has been far too liberal.
01:45 Now some of the latest opinion polls suggest that one in 10 voters are planning to back
01:50 Reform UK at the next general election.
01:53 However, a lot can happen between now and then.
01:56 There is also the UK's first past the post parliamentary voting system.
02:01 This likely means that even if that level of support from the opinion polls was carried
02:06 through to the general election, it's unlikely the party would gain any seats in Parliament.
02:12 Well, of course, that is the sort of the nature of the political system we have.
02:16 It's not proportional representation, which of course many people have argued consistently
02:20 over the last couple of generations that we need to have a truly sort of representative
02:24 Parliament of what people believe, and if that had been the case, then we would probably
02:28 have seen sort of UKIP in Parliament.
02:30 And indeed, a whole host of sort of candidates from the right and left.
02:34 So yes, it's undoubtedly the case that sort of what Reform UK will do, and a bit like
02:41 sort of UKIP would have done in the last election, there was an unholy alliance between Sir Boris
02:46 Johnson and Nigel Farage to stand down.
02:48 Nigel Farage, despite the fact he's never entered Parliament, his influence has been
02:53 absolutely sort of huge in terms of what he achieved with getting the UK referendum, something
02:59 which of course has led to all the controversy we've seen in the last number of years.
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