“Read our Contract [with voters] from last year, then they will probably understand where we are coming from,” Tice suggested. “Look at our energy policy announcement earlier this year. Look at Nigel’s speech at the launch of our local election campaign setting out some of our key national priorities. It’s all out there and it hasn’t actually changed.”
Labour language
Understanding Reform is not just about directly influencing the Farage outfit, lobbyists say.
The electoral threat of the party is also now being factored into how campaigners talk to the under-fire Starmer government.
“We have a Labour government, and ministers are obviously Labour Party, but those ministers listen to Reform,” Deacon said.
“They’re watching the polls. They know that a lot of their key voters, those hero voters, are going over to Reform. So we always just make sure that there’s a Reform perspective in the room when we’re planning a campaign.”
Other lobbyists are urging a little caution given Reform’s still small parliamentary presence, with just five MPs in the House of Commons.
Christine Quigley, vice president at Crestview Strategy, said her outfit is “certainly seeing organizations asking about whether — and how — to engage with Reform,” but said there is “less immediate impetus to engage for many sectors” given Reform’s distance from the actual levers of power.
Still, “I’m going to have to buy much wider trousers and replace my waistcoat collection with much bigger ones,” Fowler, the ex-Reform comms chief, quipped.
