Reform Leader Claims Labour ‘Civil War’ Will Force Early Vote as Party Conference Opens with Glitter Cannons and Trump Slogans
Nigel Farage has told Reform UK members they must prepare for a general election in 2027, seizing on Angela Rayner’s resignation as deputy prime minister to predict Labour’s imminent collapse into “civil war.”
The Reform leader dramatically brought forward his keynote conference speech by three hours after Rayner announced her resignation over a £40,000 stamp duty scandal, telling cheering supporters at Birmingham’s NEC that Britain was witnessing “a big rift in the Labour Party.”
“I think there’s every chance now of a general election happening in 2027 and we must be ready for that moment,” Farage declared to the packed hall, claiming Labour’s left wing would defect to Jeremy Corbyn’s nascent political movement, though there is little evidence of such a shift materialising.
Rayner’s Tax Scandal Rocks Westminster
The conference opened against extraordinary political turbulence as Rayner resigned from her positions as deputy prime minister, housing secretary and Labour’s deputy leader after ethics watchdog Sir Laurie Magnus found she breached the ministerial code by failing to pay proper stamp duty on an £800,000 Hove seafront flat.
“I deeply regret my decision to not seek additional specialist tax advice,” Rayner wrote in her resignation letter, acknowledging she “did not meet the highest standards” whilst taking “full responsibility for this error.”
Her departure marks the eighth ministerial resignation from Keir Starmer’s government in just over a year, prompting an immediate cabinet reshuffle that saw Foreign Secretary David Lammy elevated to deputy prime minister whilst retaining the justice portfolio, with Yvette Cooper moving from the Home Office to Foreign Secretary.
Dorries Makes Dramatic Entrance
In a carefully choreographed political theatre, Farage broke off mid-speech to introduce former Conservative culture secretary Nadine Dorries, who defected to Reform on Thursday after declaring the “Tory Party is dead.
The ex-MP, who spent 18 years on Conservative benches before resigning in 2023, was greeted by a fusillade from glitter cannons as she took the stage to tell the roaring crowd: “I feel for the first time in a number of years as though I’m at a conference and amongst people who share the same principles and values as I have always held.”
Dorries, 68, becomes Reform’s highest-profile defection to date, following former Tory chairman Sir Jake Berry and former Wales secretary David Jones in abandoning the Conservatives for Farage’s insurgent party.
‘Stop the Boats Within Two Weeks’
Setting out what he called “serious cuts to the welfare budget,” Farage claimed a Reform government would “stop the boats within two weeks” of taking power, scrap “harmful, wasteful” net zero policies and implement “zero tolerance policing” to make Britain safer.
The Reform leader revealed plans to lunch with the Albanian prime minister to discuss migrant returns agreements, though provided no details on how his two-week timeline for ending Channel crossings would be achieved when successive governments have failed to halt the dangerous journeys.
With over 180,000 people having crossed the Channel in small boats since 2018, and 73 deaths in 2024 alone, immigration experts have questioned the feasibility of such rapid action without French cooperation and potential breaches of international refugee conventions.
Trump Echoes at ‘Turquoise Tide’ Rally
The glitzy conference, operating on a scale far exceeding previous Reform gatherings, saw thousands of activists and hundreds of corporate lobbyists converge on Birmingham as the party sought to import elements of American political rallies.
“Let’s make Britain great again – I’ve heard that phrase somewhere else before – but I agree with it,” Farage told the audience, deliberately echoing Donald Trump’s campaign slogan whilst praising the Cross of St George and Union flags “spontaneously” appearing on lamp posts nationwide.
“What is going on out there is the British people are sticking two fingers up with every flag they place to an establishment that doesn’t believe in Britain,” he declared.
Major corporations including Heathrow Airport and JCB have paid for presence at the event, with former party spokesman Gawain Towler noting the corporate attendance showed Reform was “no longer the pariah it once was.”
Preparing for Government
Announcing the establishment of a new department to prepare for government, Farage appointed former Reform chairman Zia Yusuf as head of policy, signalling the party’s confidence about electoral prospects as it maintains consistent polling leads.
We are all ships rising on a turquoise tide headed ever closer towards winning the next general election,” Farage proclaimed, as supporters were summoned via the venue’s public address system for his unexpectedly early speech.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Yusuf confirmed: “Nigel is preparing for government. We are taking seriously the important work of getting ready for government. We’re not going to be like Labour, if the British people see fit to elect a Reform government, we will come into power with a plan.”
Labour’s Electoral Nightmare
Recent polling paints a dire picture for Starmer’s government, with Reform holding commanding leads across multiple surveys. A YouGov poll put the party on 28 per cent, eight points ahead of Labour’s 20 per cent, whilst Electoral Calculus projections suggest Labour could lose 121 seats to Reform if an election were held today.
The party claims its membership has tripled to nearly 240,000 since the 2024 general election, whilst securing control of 12 local authorities across England and winning two regional mayoralties.
Political analyst Anand Menon from King’s College London noted that whilst a Farage premiership remained “a very long way away,” it was “certainly possible” given current trajectories, though he cautioned Reform must demonstrate it can “run a professional conference” to maintain credibility.
Dorries’ Controversial Conversion
The defection of Dorries, a staunch Boris Johnson loyalist who spent three decades in the Conservative Party, adds complexity to Reform’s positioning. As culture secretary, she championed the Online Safety Act that Farage has branded “borderline dystopian” censorship and vowed to repeal.
“When we disagree, it will be in private,” Dorries said of her differences with Farage, having spent twelve “agonising” months contemplating the switch following secret negotiations including meetings at the exclusive 5 Hertford Street club in Mayfair.
A Conservative Party spokesperson responded tersely: “We wish Nadine well,” whilst Labour mocked: “Nadine Dorries says the Tory Party is dead – as one of the people who helped to kill it, she should know.
The Road to 2027?
Whether Farage’s prediction of a 2027 election proves prescient remains uncertain. Fixed-term legislation means the next election isn’t due until 2029, and despite Labour’s polling woes, the party holds a commanding 170-seat majority that would require unprecedented defections to threaten.
His claim that Labour faces imminent “civil war” with mass defections to Corbyn’s movement appears speculative at best, with no senior Labour figures indicating such intentions despite internal tensions over Rayner’s departure.
Nevertheless, with Reform consistently leading polls, attracting high-profile defectors and building organisational capacity, Farage’s call for supporters to prepare for government reflects genuine momentum behind what he calls the “turquoise tide” reshaping British politics.
As delegates departed Birmingham’s NEC, the message was clear: Reform UK no longer sees itself as a protest movement but as a government-in-waiting, even if the timeline remains more aspiration than certainty.
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Image Credit:
European Elections 2019 – Vote Nigel Farage (EFDD Group Leader, UK) — photo by European Parliament, CC BY 4.0
