Reform UK's new faces seek to share spotlight with Farage

For a party that makes a lot of noise in British politics, Reform UK has relatively few senior elected politicians.

And one man, its leader Nigel Farage, who's a true household name.

That was evident at this week's conference, where the party's four MPs had a busy schedule of prominent speaking slots, alongside lesser-known figures the party wants to promote.

The party is keen to get away from the idea that it is a one-man-band - or "the Nigel show", as long-time Farage ally Gawain Towler puts it.

That was fair criticism a year ago, says Towler, but not now as more of its new recruits are getting out into "Tellyland".

Reform wants to gain significantly more seats in councils and parliaments across the country in the coming years, and its lead in national opinion polls suggest that ambition is not unrealistic.

But to increase Reform UK's electoral footprint, the party will need a lot more candidates willing to join its ranks.

The party conference is good opportunity to thrust some of these hopefuls into the spotlight to see how they perform.

Westminster councillor Laila Cunningham is one such hopeful. She seems to be everywhere you turn in Birmingham, popping up on three panels, including two appearances on the main stage.

A lawyer and former prosecutor, who defected from the Conservatives to Reform UK in June, she says she entered politics to improve outcomes for the victims of crime.

A Conservative supporter since a teenager, Cunningham says she was a "huge fan" of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

"But the Tory party changed," she says, accusing the Conservatives of failures over home ownership, taxation and crime over many years.

She has been tipped to be Reform's candidate for the London mayoral election in 2028, although she's coy about that prospect and stresses the party hasn't even started the selection process yet.

"I'll help the party in any way they need me," she says.

Stephen Atkinson is the Reform UK leader of Lancashire County Council - another name party bosses have high hopes for.

A self-taught engineer who set up a business that makes school furniture, Atkinson rose through the ranks of local politics with the Conservative Party in north-west England.

Then the Brexit years came, and like an increasing number of Reform UK's new joiners, Atkinson quit the Conservatives after becoming disillusioned with the party.

Since becoming council leader in Lancashire in May, Atkinson says he has focused on the "huge financial challenges" facing his Reform UK administration, alongside bread-and-butter issues such as fixing potholes.

In the future, he says, it would be a "great honour" to be a parliamentary candidate for the party where he lives in the Ribble Valley, if he was selected.

"But that's a decision for other people," he adds.

If Reform does manage to get into government, and four years out from a general election it is still a very big "if", some of the party's would-be MPs may find fewer opportunities to rise to the highest levels of politics.

Farage and Zia Yusuf, the party's new head of policy, have talked about appointing dozens of new peers to take up roles in a Reform UK cabinet.

Could former Conservative cabinet minister Nadine Dorries - unveiled this week to much fanfare as Reform UK's latest Tory defector - be drafted into the Lords?

Former Conservative Party chairman Jake Berry was also doing the media rounds in Birmingham, and was seen walking into Friday night's afterparty in the main hall, where US pop legends the Jacksons made a surprise appearance on stage.

Like one of the back-up singers, Berry may be one of those called upon to make up the numbers in one of the many elections Reform UK wants to win.

In his conference speech, Farage said the party was taking the London mayoral election "seriously", as well as polls in Wales and Scotland next year.

He said Reform needed 5,000 vetted candidates to fight those polls, which he called "an essential building block as we head towards a general election".

As he closed the Birmingham conference, he called for volunteers in the audience to get to their feet if they wanted to stand in next year's elections.

"This is the people's army in operation," Farage said.

In a symbolic gesture, some in the audience did stand, but the actual process for selection is designed to be far more rigorous.

Candidate selection has always been a thorny issue for Farage's various electoral vehicles, with election campaigns blown off course by scandals.

Party insiders like to describe Reform's rapid expansion - while ensuring candidates are properly vetted - as being like assembling a jumbo jet while flying it.

They insist they have improved their vetting system since last year's general election, after some candidates were ditched or suspended over offensive comments on social media ahead of the general election.

The party now has assessment centres, where candidates are put through their paces, and a centre for excellence, where activists are caught how to campaign effectively.

Thomas Kerr, the former group leader of the Scottish Conservatives, who defected to Reform in January, was also doing the rounds of the fringe panels in Birmingham, and says he hopes to stand in next year's Holyrood elections.

Asked if Reform UK is one-man band, Kerr says: "I don't think that if Farage was to fall under a bus that Reform wouldn't be polling where we are, because of the momentum behind the party."

Is the party getting more recognisable spokespeople though?

"I think they are slowly starting to do that," Kerr says.

"You see people like me and others appearing on panels at fringe events at conferences. You'll be seeing people speaking at conferences.

"We are four years from a general election, Nigel is the man we are hoping will be prime minister but there will be a team behind him."

And with that, Kerr is interrupted by a Tannoy announcement that "Nigel Farage will be on the main stage at 1pm", and a mad rush to the main stage ensues.

Minutes before, Farage told his team he had wanted to rip up the conference schedule and deliver his main speech early, to react to Angela Rayner resigning as deputy prime minister and other roles.

Reform UK's new faces do their best to put themselves in the frame.

But for now, this is a picture that's very much dominated by one big figure.