Ben Habib: Unless Farage allows Reform UK to grow bigger than himself, the whole project is doomed

Ben Habib is the former deputy leader of Reform UK, and was an MEP for the Brexit Party.

Reform UK’s performance in the polls is not matched by its performance within. The allegorical picture of a serene duck paddling furiously under the water is the inverse for Reform. This particular duck flaps its wings, makes a hell of a noise… but its webbed feet are still.

Nigel Farage is the consummate performer and campaigner. But he is not a good leader. To lead you must recognise the need to broaden and deepen your pool of talent, encourage and develop your colleagues, give them the tools with which they can progress, listen to and support them.

For Nigel, colleagues are an irritation. So dull to have to manage them; they should just get out of his way so he can do his thing. His approach works for anyone with a gift of the gab and not serious about governing.

Until he appointed himself leader of Reform, he had never led a party which had a serious chance of breaking into our two-party system. He had always been on the sidelines protesting; not offering solutions – just protesting

The political landscape is very different now: a new party could well win the next general election. But Farage has not revised his script.

When the general election was called he (who had been absent from the political fray for over four years) was not going to stand. He tweeted the following morning that the US election was more important, and followed it up with another tweet declaring that six weeks was not enough time in which to make any impact.

He was right about that. But what he had not appreciated was that the party was already set to win seats.

When he realised there was a real chance of winning, he appointed himself leader of Reform, then booted out Tony Mack, our candidate for Clacton (the first of many good loyal people to be sacked) and gave that plum seat to himself. Tony was left heartbroken – and out of pocket.

Winning five seats in the election, one of which was won by a paper candidate, and coming second in 98 others should have been signal enough that everything in British politics had changed. On a shoestring and within a couple of years, Reform had placed itself in the mainstream of politics. The country was, is, crying out to be rescued.

With that realisation should also have come the realisation that this duck better start paddling. It became vital that it structure itself properly, attract the best people, start making policy, and getting ready to form a government.

That is partly why I commenced my campaign for the democratisation of the party. With proper processes, checks and balances introduced, a proper party executive could have been formed to do the heavy lifting, while Farage spread his wings across the country.

He, however, has shirked it. Do not believe Farage when he says he has democratised the party. He is not telling the truth.

Nigel controls Reform. He is either not serious or does not appreciate the importance of a proper structure. He publicly acknowledges he could be prime minister but does not understand what is required to get there, and what must be done if he does.

Rupert Lowe and I, on the other hand, are used to building organisations. We recognised that if Reform is to win the next election and deliver for the people then it needs to start paddling, hard.

The reward we both got, for being constructively critical, was to be set aside. In Rupert’s case Nigel sought to vilify him, including, absurdly, a complaint to the police over “hurty words”. Every allegation against Rupert is false.

Dozens upon dozens of good people in Reform’s grassroots have been set aside in the same fashion. Others have quit. Over the last few months, I have been inundated with people pleading for help and sharing their awful stories.

Remember, these are not paid employees. They have given up their free time and some even left paid employment to help the party. It is these people that laid the groundwork for Farage to become an MP. Yet Reform has not hesitated to attack them and, in some cases, wrongly ruin their reputations.

Unless Nigel wakes up to what is required to deliver the country to safety – unless he finally allows a party to grow bigger than himself, as he never did UKIP – Reform will fail. Sadly, there is little sign of that.