Up next in 10
LBC's political editor, Natasha Clark, and political correspondent, Bethany Dawson, discussed the Reform conference as it drew to a close on Sunday.
Meant to be a chance to rally Reform supporters, the event was overshadowed by a fresh scandal around the party's donations.
West Midlands Police have appealed for a woman to come forward after footage shared online appears to show the protester 'attacked' while being removed from the Reform party conference.
Several protesters disrupted Nigel Farage's speech at the Reform UK party conference in Birmingham on Friday.
They were quickly bundled out of the room amid boos and heckles from the crowd, and taunts from Mr Farage as he pushed on with his speech.
One woman who stood up to disrupt the speech can be seen in video footage being removed from the room. While several security guards remove her, members of the crowd appear to grab at her face and hair, and hit her with a walking stick.
The heavy-handed approach to the removal of the protester, and the involvement of members of the crowd, has drawn criticism online.
West Midlands Police has said in a statement that they are aware of the video circulating online, but have not received a complaint from the woman involved.
They said: "We're aware of a video circulating from the Reform UK Conference showing an incident with a protester.
"We haven't received a complaint but would ask the woman involved to come forward and contact us so we can carry out enquiries.
"Anyone with any information should contact us on 101 quoting log number 924 of 5 September."
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0:00
Is Reform a party of scandal or ready for government
0:03
This is Reform's party conference here in Birmingham. I'm LBC's political editor, Natasha Clark
0:08
I'm with LBC's political correspondent, Bethany Dawson. And it's fair to say this has been a make or break event here in Birmingham for Nigel Farage
0:17
He's had a rough few months. He's had to fight a by-election in Clacton against a bin
0:21
He did win it, but he's facing lots of questions about the party's donations
0:25
and whether they are ready to enter number 10, Downing Street. The polls have also taken a bit of a dip
0:31
Nigel Farage's reform party has been leading in them for more than a year. And now we are seeing a bit of an Andy Burnham bounce as he takes ahead in some polls
0:39
And Nigel Farage got off to potentially the worst start possible here at his party's annual gathering
0:45
It was meant to be a reset moment after a very difficult few months. And instead, he's been facing accusations that the party had illegally tried to get around donation rules
0:55
What is this story and why should people care? So yes, this was a year-long investigation by Channel 4 News and Verbatim
1:02
and it showed an undercover sting operation where a journalist posed as the English son of an American wealthy man
1:11
who wanted to donate to Reform UK. Now, under British electoral rules, foreign donors are not allowed to give money to British political parties
1:21
but the investigation showed two men within reform, James Orr and Dan Dukes
1:28
supposedly having conversations where they were suggesting ways to get around this law in order to secure donations
1:35
The investigation also focused on polling. It showed polls being commissioned and paid for by third parties
1:43
They went into the press, onto front pages of newspapers. Yeah, the Times, the Telegraph at the time were doing these really big splashes on these stories saying, you know, reforms doing well amongst certain types of the public, certain groups, including, I think, former trade union types, wasn't it
1:59
That poll that was given to the Times. And they weren't told at the time this was polling that basically the Reform Party had wanted them to do
2:07
And that's what you see in some of that Channel 4 investigations. This is not the start that Nigel Farage wanted with his conference
2:14
He wanted to put that scandal behind him, come in and basically seem like the man who was ready to be the next prime minister
2:21
But instead, we had this major scandal hanging over this conference. And there's obviously been quite a lot of infighting behind the scenes within senior reform figures as well
2:31
We've obviously seen criticism of Zia Yusuf, some of his messages on social media, including a tweet last week where he was accused of racism
2:39
That's obviously also been a bit of a hangover for the party. as they're going into what should be a conference
2:46
make or break conference, where they're trying to get back on the front foot. They're talking about 100 days of government
2:51
They're talking about what they're going to do immediately after getting into government
2:56
And of course, we put all of this to Nigel Farage here on LBC
2:59
He spoke with my colleague, Nick Ferrari. When told about the polling that had been paid for by an overseas source you talked about how it was amazing and how it worked comma boom You were aware of it Mr Farage Yes I was aware of it subsequently yes
3:13
I was told about it, and it had nothing to do with the party at all. But it was funded by a supposed overseas source
3:21
The whole documentary was funded by overseas sources. If we may come to the Reform UK involvement
3:26
you will be aware that it is impermissible under electoral law to receive funds
3:30
No, no, no, Nick, Nick, Nick, Nick, Nick. Reformer UK did not commission the poll. An independent corporate entity commissioned the poll
3:37
But it was funded, Mr Farage, it was funded by a supposed overseas rich donor
3:45
Number one, it had nothing to do with the party whatsoever. And number two, polling can be paid for by anybody
3:52
provided it's put into the public domain. That was Nigel Farage speaking to our colleague Nick Ferrari
3:57
And as you heard just there, he was pretty bullish, saying that essentially it was just pub chat
4:02
and there was nothing to see here. Obviously, he has now, unfortunately, sacked, though
4:07
two top members of his team, Dan Dukes, and, as you say, Bethany James Orr
4:11
So they were two pretty influential figures in the party. We also put those accusations
4:16
to the party's Shadow Chancellor, Robert Jenrick. Nigel himself appeared to be quite pleased
4:22
with their work in the documentary, you know, bang for the buck and all of that
4:26
So that would imply that he knew a lot about what was going on, so maybe he should recluse himself
4:31
Well, he didn't. He didn't know what was going on. Let's be very clear. What did happen was he went out for lunch
4:37
with some people who were offering to donate to the party and he was polite to them
4:41
That's what you would expect and party leaders have to do all the time
4:46
That is just a feature of being a party leader. But let's be very clear. He didn't know anything about this stuff
4:51
These are two people who worked for the party, were involved in the party. They made a mistake
4:56
Strange comment from him. It was a very strange comment at the end, because it certainly gave the very strong impression
5:00
He knew exactly what was going on, and he was very happy with the result. And regardless of whether money is paid to reform or not
5:09
the idea of allegedly conspiring to receive money from foreign donors is in itself illegal
5:16
No, Nigel didn't know anything about this. What he said was that these people had commissioned some polls
5:23
that appeared on the front page of newspapers, and that that had an effect. But actually, people here at this party conference just don't really seem to care about this story very much
5:31
And that's exactly what you would expect, isn't it, Bethany? Because these are the party faithful. There's 8,000 people here from the Reform Party
5:38
They really don't just care about the story at all, do they? They don't. And I think the important thing to remember here is that Reform UK is a party born out of the idea that the establishment isn't working
5:48
and that the media don't like Reform UK, that they are threatened, that they want to have sort of a political system
5:55
that they govern, that are run by Labour and the Conservatives, the two major party
6:00
So actually, when you get these huge headlines like this, these huge scandals
6:04
instead of it ripping it through what these people believe, what these people love and want to see in government
6:10
It plays into their hands a bit It proves their point that they believe it very true that the media hate reform And when we are speaking to people here they just say this is a media stitch up
6:21
We've seen it before. And Nigel Farage is basically their saviour. He's a celebrity figure here
6:26
Everybody wants their moment of fame, their selfie with Nigel Farage. You've been speaking to some people here at the party's conference
6:33
Here was what they had to say. You worried at all about the reputation that might give reform
6:38
Not at all. I've known right from the very start that everybody is out to get Nigel and reform as a whole
6:48
I think it's a stitch-up. I think that it's part of the establishment's plot. That's all I'm going to say
6:54
Where there's smoke, there's fire. But that doesn't necessarily mean that fire is bad
7:00
The fire that heats your lounge, the fire that keeps the beasts at bay
7:05
I've seen enough stings by the journalists over the years to see it for what it is
7:11
you know, it's just some on the hand journalism Labour are the biggest con artists
7:16
out with their things they've done wrong Nigel Farage tried to go on stage
7:21
a banner was then unfurled which delayed his entry onto the main stage
7:25
for his big speech when he did take to the main stage we saw protester after protester
7:30
take up and try to disrupt his speech And Bethany, you caught up with one of those protesters afterwards, didn't you, Sally
7:36
And she told you that they even tried to recruit her as a councillor. Did you find it difficult to get into the conference today
7:43
No, not at all. It was like I just walked in, showed them my pass, showed them my ID, walked in
7:51
Have you disrupted a Reform UK event before? Yes. So I entered last year, disrupted Nigel Farage
7:57
I used the same pass, the same ID. And they took my pass and somehow they haven't banned me as a member
8:03
So yeah, it goes to show how he's really using that five million for security
8:07
So to be clear, you're a member of Reform UK? I am a paid member with my government ID
8:13
They have all of the tools they need to ban me and have chosen not to for no reason
8:17
Again, I'd like to stress that this is the second time I have done this. Yes, it's ridiculous, I know. I know it's ridiculous
8:26
They also asked me to be a Reform Councillor after I disrupted him the last time
8:31
Did you say yes? I was really tempted. I was really tempted to say yes
8:35
But then I thought of all those like media headlines and I was like, maybe next time
8:40
And Bethany, I thought they were quite heavy handed in some of those videos as well. So there is a bit of a question mark now over this conference
8:47
And obviously everybody is talking about the Americanisation of British politics. And you look around this hall here, there's lots of pyrotechnics, there's lots of sort of flashy screens
8:56
there's lots of money clearly going in to the Reform Party and lots of people sort of comparing it to Donald Trump's America
9:02
Do you share that view? Absolutely. I've been to many British political party conferences
9:08
This is the most American one that I have been to. As you say, there were pyrotechnics
9:14
This is more of a rally than a traditional conference. Interestingly that is the same as some of the earlier Reform UK conferences My understanding was that they wanted to move away from that They wanted a more serious party conference where they discussed policies in different pockets of the
9:30
It's a bit of everything, isn't it? You're trying to appeal to the outside world, to the normal voters on the street
9:34
You've got to keep your party faithful, happy on the inside, and you've got to get serious businesses in
9:39
to give you the money and the credibility that you might need if indeed you're going to fight the next election
9:44
But on the note of businesses, I was speaking to somebody here who was here in a business capacity
9:48
and they were remarking that actually there were much fewer businesses here than they were expecting
9:53
There are a couple of stands behind us in the main stage. I think many of them are political monitoring businesses rather than businesses who want to lend their support
10:01
or even just discuss policy with Reform UK. Do you think they still have a bit of a credibility problem, Reform UK
10:07
Because they are obviously trying so hard to be the anti-establishment party
10:12
but they want to be the establishment in government in just a few months' time and that is quite hard to square that circle
10:17
Absolutely, and this conference was meant to fix that. This conference was meant to be a time where they could discuss the first 100 days
10:25
That was the whole point of this conference. They were meant to spell out all of their policies
10:28
We had Jordan Bardella here signing this memorandum of understanding on small boats
10:33
of the French prime ministerial hopeful. Nigel Farage here was trying to show that he could perform on the world stage
10:40
that he could work with businesses. But instead, it has been marred by scandal, by protests
10:45
and now, as you say, those protests bringing up security concerns. I was standing next to protesters as they were being quite forcibly dragged out of the main hall
10:56
where Nigel Farage was speaking. Journalists were caught up in that. Security wrongly grabbed journalists
11:02
And to give you a sense of how the crowd reacted to protesters
11:06
or people they believed were protesters, one journalist was punched around the head by a member who was here
11:13
I was ducking out the way of bottles being thrown at us. This was quite a dangerous thing
11:19
You might expect to see that in Donald Trump's America, mightn't you? But actually, it's the kind of thing you don't really expect to see here in Britain
11:24
Yeah, and if we cast our minds back to the very beginning of this conference
11:28
the first problem that cropped up was that certain journalists were not permitted to come to this conference
11:34
And yesterday, again, when I was standing with protesters, those journalists, those of us who came out with the protesters
11:41
Some had their press accreditation removed because we were seen to be too close to protesters
11:45
There's a bit of a hostility, definitely, amongst some in reform, to some journalists anyway
11:49
And as you say, they're meant to be the anti-establishment party, but I do think that line is being blurred
11:54
between how they work with the establishment, how they work with journalists, you know
11:59
how they speak to us, how they work with businesses, how they get support, how they get funding
12:03
and then also rejecting the structures around them that they believe have caused many of the problems we see today
12:09
So all in all, obviously reform have had probably not the party conference season
12:13
that they were hoping for here in Birmingham. However, the members remaining incredibly loyal to them
12:19
Nigel Farage still their saviour, and obviously the polls, they're still holding strong for now
12:23
We'll have to wait and see whether that election in 2027, Nigel Farage's dream, he wants to go to the polls and fight
12:29
We'll have to see whether that turns into a reality
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