Ann Widdecombe is one of at least seven former Brexit Party MEPs who have joined what Nigel Farage has described as its “direct descendant,” Reform UK. The ex-Tory MP, who served the party in Parliament for more than two decades, including in cabinet, said she has made the leap from “political homelessness,” having previously represented the now-defunct Brexit Party, because “it is very clear that it is the only way to save the Union.”
Reform this week held a press conference in which leader Richard Tice insisted: “We mean business.” Reports suggest the party will stand candidates in every parliamentary seat at the next election, with new political backers having been persuaded to come over by Rishi Sunak’s ‘Windsor Framework’—that is, the agreement reached by UK and EU negotiators over the post-Brexit Northern Ireland Protocol. Critics of the deal say it keeps Northern Ireland under the wing of Brussels, and away from the rest of the UK. Ben Habib, another of the former Brexit Party MEPs who this week joined Reform, recently told The European Conservative that the deal represented “yet another fudge and sellout.”
Ms. Widdecombe described attempts by the Conservative government to sell the Windsor Framework to voters as the “final straw.” She said:
When the Brexit Party dissolved and morphed into Reform, I did not join Reform. There were various reasons why I didn’t. But now the reason that I’m joining Reform, along with another 10 of the former Brexit Party MEPs, is because it is very clear that it is the only way to save the Union.
I do not believe that that is an exaggeration. We have left Northern Ireland in the single market while the rest of the UK has withdrawn and yet … it was made extremely clear in the Conservative Party manifesto that when we left the EU we would leave as one United Kingdom.
A recent survey, reported in The Independent, suggested that almost two-thirds of UK adults believe the country “needs a completely new type of political party to compete with the Conservatives and Labour for power.” Other groups, including True and Fair and the Social Democratic Party, are also gearing up to take on the established political forces.
Reform UK would likely do well to have Nigel Farage, dubbed ‘Mr. Brexit,’ involved in the party to as great an extent as possible. But the UKIP leader-cum-GB news host, who spoke at this week’s press conference, said his role would be nothing more than “honorary and advisory.” Beyond Brexit, Reform has pledged to “protect our borders,” abolish the BBC licence fee, cut down on “wasteful, bad or unnecessary spending” and cut—as well as simplify—taxes.
Responding to heightened criticism of the Windsor Framework, the prime minister’s official spokesman said the government thinks “this delivers on fixing the long-standing problems that have hindered individuals and businesses and caused such problems both for Northern Ireland and the UK as a whole.”
