Since I withdrew my support from both the Reform and the Branch Committee, I have been joined by many other people locally.
We are not against Reform. It is the only party that offers – or offered – a manifesto that we can get behind. What we are against is the way Reform is being managed, the changes to core policies, and the treatment of membership. We are against what Zia Yusuf is doing to our party.
Therefore, we are getting together as Reform in Exile, although that’s a working title. A branch that will do everything that a branch should do, but without the control of Reform HQ or its highly paid managers.
We are not starting a new party. Far from it. We live in hope that Zia Yusuf and Nigel Farage are removed from Reform, along with all the aforementioned managers, and that Rupert Lowe is appointed as leader. Failing that, Rupert Lowe starts his own party, or GB-PAC sets up the mechanisms for us to operate under their umbrella. Regardless of the outcome, we will be prepared as a fully functioning local association.
If any other former Reform branch members share this sentiment, please let us know. We all need to be communicating with each other, and the GB-PAC umbrella might be the ideal platform for doing so.
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Hi. You are one of many, there is a collective of X-Reformers who are taking similar action in the midlands and
Wales. They are supporting each other under the banner of Independent Britain, some are standing as Independents in the May elections. Please check out Independent Britain on facebook. I will try to get some of them to reach out to you.
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Count me in! Disappointed in how recently NF and Yusaf seem to have gutted Reform of what it once stood for. Disappointed too in how Reform have got rid of at least 2 of it’s best assets, RL and BH - a huge loss to the party.
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Where are you in the country, Patrick? Just wondering if I’m near your ‘Reform in Exile’ group.
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I’m in West Sussex, but I have been in touch with Independent Britain, thanks to Caroline Smith, and they seem to be spreading all over the country, so I am waiting for a response and perhaps go forward under their banner as they are part of GB-PAC.
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I came close to spending my 25 quid joining Reform. I was even prepared to knock doors for them to help get people elected. I’ve been very disappointed to see them move away from taking strong positions. Rupert Lowe was their only MP who was not afraid to stand with the general public and say what most people are thinking.
I’ve come to the conclusion that the UK doesn’t need Reform, it needs reverse. It’s was Tony Blairs reforms that got the country into the mess it’s in now. We need a party who will actually reverse these positions. I think Reform UK only plan to do the bare minimum.
They might stop the boats, but the boats are only the tip of the iceberg. They don’t have any policies to deport or stop the over use of legal immigration. Now Farage is saying Brexit is done, but it’s not done. They have replaced grassroots candidates with many of the same people who were part of the Conservative party’s problem.
I can see one of 2 things happening:
- The Conservatives make a fake shift to the right to eliminate Reform, but only to win and nothing changes.
- Reform UK wins the election, but only on the basis of being less bad than the others. We get Tories 2.0 and nothing changes.
Unless a movement can re-infiltrate parties and take our own long march or a new party can emerge without splitting the right wing vote, it will be more of the same. It seems like Reform are already preventing being infiltrated by patriots and removing the ones they have.
Sorry I haven’t suggested any solutions. This is more of an observation/rant.
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Completely agree
we can but hope 
A lot of what you say here rings a bell with me. I was removed from the Swindon South whatsapp group for daring to make the point that NF seems to be shifting course away from all that I found worthy of my support within ReformUK. Now is a) NF playing the long game to attract those on the centre left who have been let down by the Uniparty hence making Reform more attractive to them or b) is he being driven by forces we mere mortals are not privy to?
Whatever the answer is I am unhappy with the status as it is quo!!
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At first I thought he was playing the long game. But the more I look into things, the more I doubt he knows what he’s doing well enough to play a long game.
I’m part of MAGA when I’m in the United States. They don’t have the same convictions as the MAGA crowd and are always cancelling the same crowd in their own party. Trump’s administration is built on that crowd.
There’s no way Farage would not cancel the likes of JD Vance and Kash Patel and there’s no way similar big guns on the British right like Braverman and Jenrick will risk joining him because he can only tolerate yes men.
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That was 25 quid well saved. I have now joined Integrity, Ben Habib’s party and have all fingers and toes crossed that this might be the answer. Especially if/when Rupert Lowe gets on board. Maybe this is where all these policies we have commented on will find a home. We live in hope.
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So glad to have found this forum as I was beginning to think I was a lone voice in Eastbourne. As a former parliamentary candidate for UKIP and an election agent for The Brexit Party I have seen sufficient of Farage to know what will happen next. He is as Rupert Lowe describes and will never change unless and until he has trashed Reform like he did the previous parties.
He thinks he can be a one person party but without a team of spokespersons he can never be seen as heading a government in waiting. And why would all those that have grand designs on helping Reform risk putting their heads above the parapet only to be cancelled like Rupert Lowe.
Too many of Farage’s MEPs and UKIP spokespersons were thrown under the proverbial bus because they opposed or spoke out and then in December 2019 317 candidates were dropped and abandoned at the eleventh hour without any thanks or the chance to thank their helpers and those that donated. We must never fall for that trick again. If anyone has a group near Eastbourne please let me know.
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Hello from just along the coast in Bognor and Littlehampton. It seems that while those of us who have dealt with Farage and/or Reform first-hand have some idea of what is going on the mass of the Reform membership are still of the persuasion that Farage and Yusuf can walk on water and feed the five thousand with a bucket of KFC and a can of coke.
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I think Ben Habib and the crew are much the same in essence as you guys were all members of the party. I was about to sign up and something made me hesitate, then Ben Habib left Reform and I started taking long hard looks at Farage.
The next place I looked at was UKIP. I have to say that I like them but they aren’t quite for me. Then I saw Farage dissassociate with a victim of Britains institutionalised torture, in the form of Tommy Robinson, Then Rupert Lowe happened and Zia Yusef and frankly I’m glad I kept a hold of my money.
Well former Reform members in bannishment is what it should probably should be called. You’ve taken the hit, felt the dissapointment of being let down. What if we make this what reform should have been all along but wasn’t allowed to be.
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