Nigel Farage has unveiled the first part of Reform UK’s frontbench team, saying it shows that the party is no longer reliant entirely on him – while also warning that he will not tolerate any dissent from his colleagues.
Two of the four appointees are recent defectors from the Conservatives: Robert Jenrick, who takes on the Treasury brief, and Suella Braverman, whom Farage has put in charge of education, skills and equalities.
Richard Tice, Reform’s deputy leader, who before Jenrick’s arrival had been expected to have the Treasury role, has instead been handed a combined brief of business, trade and energy. Zia Yusuf, the party’s head of policy and the only one of the quartet not in parliament, has been given the home affairs and migration brief.
Farage said the emergence of this team, with more posts to be announced soon, should end criticism that he runs a “one-man band”.
“This is about creating a machine for government,” he said, arguing that a previous “big gap” between his own polling and recognition and that of the party had been closed.
“Now, if I was hit by a bus tomorrow, Reform has its own brand, Reform has its own identity,” Farage said. “Reform now has its own senior characters with their own departments to lead. I’m enormously proud of that.”
He was very clear, however, that while the new appointees could help devise policy, he had the final say. Asked if there had been any “internal upset” at the division of jobs, Farage replied: “Not as yet that has been made known to me. And if there is? Tough. We’re not mucking about here. We haven’t got time.
“Very simple. If people mess about, behave badly or are disloyal, we’re not going to put up with it.”
Asked how, with Jenrick and Braverman in his ranks, he would avoid a Conservative-style descent into “psychodrama”, Farage replied: “Very simple. If people mess about, behave badly and are disloyal, they won’t be here very long.”
This approach was evident in the conduct of the press conference, in which a bullish Farage often answered questions on behalf of colleagues or in some cases stopped them from being answered. Dismissing a question from a Financial Times reporter, he told her to “just write some silly story”.
In terms of policy, Braverman had the most to say, announcing that on her first day in government she would abolish her own equalities brief and repeal the Equality Act.
On education, she condemned what she called the prevalence of liberal ideology in schools, and she said that instead of a target to have 50% of young people attending university, this would be switched to 50% training in trades such as being an electrician or carpenter.
Tice, a longtime sceptic of net zero policy, pledged to end what he called the “madness” of clean and renewable energy, to focus instead on offshore oil and gas and fracking.
Asked whether voters should be suspicious of Reform handing senior jobs to two former Conservatives who had served in governments Farage had labelled as appalling failures, the Reform leader said Jenrick and Braverman were different because they had resigned or been “eased out of their positions”. Braverman was sacked twice as home secretary.
Farage, who has set a deadline of May for any more defectors from the Conservatives to sign up, indicated he did not expect many more incomers.
“There are very, very few – hardly any – left in the frontlines of the Conservative party who we would even be vaguely interested in,” he said.
Anna Turley, the Labour party chair, said Farage had unveiled a “top team of failed Tories”, adding: “They failed Britain before – they’d do the same again under Reform.”
Kevin Hollinrake, the Conservative party chair, said: “After months of infighting and leaks, Nigel Farage has unveiled a frontbench dominated by ex-Conservatives – a lineup that looks more like a tribute act to the old Conservative party than a credible alternative.
“Even now, some are already eyeing their next career move, while others who were clearly expecting promotion have been left out in the cold.”
