Reform UK is seeking to attract disillusioned Conservative voters, mainly over the issues of immigration and net zero.
Immigration is likely to be one of the key issues for the election with figures on Saturday showing more than 10,000 people have crossed the English Channel in small boats in 2024, setting a new record for this stage of the year.
Reform UK is placing third in most polls, ahead of the Liberal Democrats, and will stand in 630 seats across England, Scotland and Wales.
Many Tories fear the party could put a real dent in Rishi Sunak’s hopes of a return to Downing Street come polling day.
Who is the leader of Reform UK
It’s leader, Richard Mr Tice, is a one-time property developer multimillionaire former Tory donor who inherited the leadership of Reform UK – formerly the Brexit Party – from Nigel Farage.
He broke with the Conservatives in 2019 in frustration at the failure of Theresa May’s government to deliver on the referendum result.
Standing in the Boston and Skegness constituency, he has sought to develop his own agenda, emerging as a fierce critic of Covid lockdown restrictions and government Net Zero policies and campaigning for tax cuts and an end to “woke nonsense” in the police and other public services.
What are Reform UK’s immigration pledges
The party hopes their fundamentally anti-establishment message will resonate with disaffected voters, particularly those in “red wall” seats which the Tories took from Labour in 2019.
On its website, the party sets out six reforms it says Britain needs in order to address immigration.
The party has called for a freeze on what they term “non-essential immigration”, adding: “Smart immigration can target the essential skills our economy needs such as doctors, nurses and successful business people, earning above the average salary.”
Reform UK also says it has a six-point plan to stop small boat crossings. The plan states that if the party comes to power they will leave the European Convention on Human Rights, create a department for immigration and institute offshore processing for illegal arrivals.
It also states they will not allow any illegal immigrants to be resettled in the UK, and take any arriving in small boats “back to France”.
Asylum seekers who arrive from safe countries, they want processed in offshore British Overseas Territories to “stop the scandal of undocumented asylum seekers absconding to work illegally or commit crime”.
Plus all foreign criminals will be immediately deported once their sentence ends while Reform would introduce new visa rules for international students and their dependents.
Their final pledge to address immigration is to “stop the illegal working scandal” by enforcing the rules to reduce the number of undocumented and illegal workers.
What Richard Tice said during his launch campaign
At the launch of Reform’s campaign on Thursday, Mr Tice said the Prime Minister had decided to “cut and run” by calling a summer election instead of in the autumn because he was scared of the threat from Reform UK.
He said the Prime Minister was “absolutely terrified” by his party’s upward progress in the polls at a time when the Tories have slumped.
Ann Widdecombe, another former Tory minister who joined Reform UK in 2023, added: “The crucial issue in this forthcoming General Election is going to be immigration, and the impact that it is having.
“Having been in the Home Office, and having been admittedly a long time ago immigration minister, I know very well that immigration has a tremendous impact on the country. There is no such thing as an economic movement which doesn’t impact right across the scale.”
She said it had an impact on the health service, housing, and infrastructure, adding: “That is what we are now facing, and that is why uncontrolled immigration is at the root of so much that is going wrong.”
Where is Nigel Farage?
Reform UK’s most high-profile figure Mr Farage, the honorary president, will not be standing, opting instead to focus on Donald Trump’s campaign in the US.
He said he thinks the Prime Minister’s timing of calling the election date on Wednesday may have been because he heard he was preparing to launch a campaign next week to stand as an MP.
Appearing on GB News as a guest during his show slot on Thursday, he said: “I wonder whether the Conservative Party found out about it. I think the sense of panic that we saw yesterday, the badly prepared speech, might perhaps have prompted it a little bit.”
Asked to clarify that he was referring to launching a campaign to stand as an MP, he confirmed saying: “Yes, absolutely.”
But Mr Farage admitted the Prime Minister had “wrong-footed” him by calling an election for July 4.
Despite not running as a candidate, Mr Farage said he would campaign for Reform UK.
Additional reporting by Press Association
