Protests at party conferences are fairly routine. Yet at Reform UK’s, when demonstrators disrupted Nigel Farage’s speech on Saturday, this habitual feature exposed something ugly.
While organised, trained security was on hand, the crowd itself intervened more rapidly and more violently. Attendees grappled with a petite female protester. Some grabbed her round the neck, others pulled her hair, while another whacked her with a walking stick. The footage – and this image specifically – is shocking. It looks like a rage-filled mob rather than an attempt to manage the situation.
Many of Reform’s leaders have revelled in the incident. The reaction of Robert Jenrick, the party’s economics spokesman, was a sarcastic “boo-hoo”. Reform chairman Lee Anderson suggested a whip-round for a new walking stick. It is red meat for those inside the hall – the most dedicated of Reform’s supporters – but it goes against what we expect from politicians. Violence is normally a red line. Politicians condemn it. They don’t get swept away in the fervour, or mock the victims – even if they find such people annoying.
Polling has repeatedly shown that the Reform base is at odds with the broader public. Those who voted for the party in 2024 are more likely to be vaccine sceptics than the rest of the population. They have a higher opinion of Donald Trump and are less likely to support Ukraine or believe in global warming. According to one poll, the party’s voters are even more willing to believe in ghosts and witches than those of other parties.
