You Can’t Reform What You’ve Become

When movements confuse loyalty with leadership, truth becomes treason — and scrutiny becomes heresy.

You can tell everything about a political party by how it responds to a challenge. Reform UK supporters responded to a questioning of a poll like it was a hostile invasion — and the louder they shouted, the more they proved my point.

Let’s be clear about the context. Reform UK is winning. They’re not just trending — they’re making serious inroads. Dominating in local council races, humiliating Conservative candidates in places once considered bulletproof, and surging in polls across multiple demographics. They’ve gone from fringe disrupters to real political players in under two years. That kind of growth is remarkable by any standard.

And I’ve never denied it. I’ve said, repeatedly: the rise is real — but the question isn’t can they win. It’s should they.

Because that’s where this all falls apart. Political momentum is not moral vindication. Just because you’re gaining ground doesn’t mean you’re on solid ground. And if your movement treats basic scrutiny as betrayal — if asking a question gets you branded a traitor — then the alarm bells shouldn’t be ringing. They should be deafening.

Last week, a single outlier poll gave Reform UK a boost. I was asked to talk about it on TalkTV. I said what any honest commentator would: let’s look at the methodology, let’s treat it cautiously, let’s not anoint a movement based on a single data point. In fact, the very company that conducted the poll said the same thing — cautioning against reading too much into it and stressing that it was only a snapshot. I wasn’t even saying anything radical.

Yes, I went in hard — but I merely laid the case bare. The hypocrisy, the contradictions, the amateur-hour presentation that too often defines Reform’s public output. I pointed out the flaws, the missteps, the laziness.

And for the record, I actually enjoyed the debate. Alex Phillips and I are firm friends — I even said I’d consider jumping on the bandwagon if they made her Chairman. I’ve worked with Will Kingston on The Saturday Five on GB News. He’s a powerhouse in the making. But I won’t lie — I knew the backlash would be fierce. Reform UK has become entirely predictable in its defensiveness, and that’s the real problem.

I’ve also noticed a number of messages saying they like me but find my Reform UK criticism tiring. Trust me, I’m sick of it as well. But for me, this is a matter of integrity. You don’t change a decaying, corrupt, and awful system like Westminster by becoming it. Trust me, I’m there every day. I’m even sat here writing this, watching it rot in real time.

I got into politics through my love of history. Britain has a rich one — and I’ve always been fascinated by people and the power they hold to effect real change. But we must remember: not all change is good. The situation we find ourselves in is complex. There’s plenty of blame to go around. But there’s also an opportunity for renewal. Not change — renewal. Change is a word you put on a poster. Renewal is a mission.

The Right has never been closer to something real. The path is clear. But I will not sacrifice principle for power — because that’s exactly what got us into this mess in the first place. I do not believe Nigel Farage is our only hope. But I do recognise that we are fast running out of both hope and time.

I admire Nigel. I do. He’s a powerhouse, a campaigner like we may never see again. But as the quote goes: you campaign in poetry, you govern in prose. And the prose matters. Winning isn’t enough.

“I ask these questions because I care. You stopped caring the moment asking became betrayal.”

One of my first mentors told me: any politician can tear down a system — it’s a statesman who builds. That’s all I’m asking for. That we behave like statesmen, not just politicians. But apparently, that’s wrong.

That was enough. Within hours, I was being denounced for simply applying the same critical lens I use across the political spectrum. The same viewers who praised my appearances days earlier suddenly labelled me a stooge. It didn’t matter that I’m a Conservative Party member who has called for multiple Tory resignations and publicly criticised the government’s failures — particularly on immigration. None of that counted. Because this wasn’t about integrity. It was about loyalty.

“If your party reacts to scrutiny with smear campaigns, what exactly are you reforming?”

The question is no longer whether Reform UK can handle power — it’s whether they can even handle a question. Because if your party reacts to scrutiny with smear campaigns and silencing tactics, then what exactly are you reforming? Certainly not the political culture.

I didn’t ask because I wanted to take them down. I asked because I still care. I care that people are putting faith in a movement that, when challenged, responds with the same fragility it claims to oppose. I care that the political Right — the side I belong to — is flirting with a party that cannot tell the difference between inquiry and insult.

And while some people I once respected stayed silent, others doubled down. The volume of abuse I received wasn’t surprising — but the lack of counterbalance from reasonable voices was. Where were the grown-ups in the room?

I saw one tweet, which stood out among the usual bile and homophobic slurs, where a user with a substantial following proudly claimed they'd “predicted” a fall in the Labour vote share — and said insiders like me had claimed the opposite. First, it was completely untrue. But more than that, it was the smug self-congratulations that bothered me. The replies were a stream of high-minded reinforcement — but no one with a brain expected Labour’s vote share to rise. It’s been documented for months. The worst thing to happen post-Brexit has been the birth of the “silent majority” myth — the idea that everyone secretly agrees with them. I remember the same people losing their minds when a Green Party official said on Newsnight that they didn’t understand why Labour was polling well. That same smug superiority was on full display. Victory laps are fine. But if your cause is only about beating the other side, then it’s not a movement — it’s a vendetta.

Let me be clear: I’m not here to be liked. I’m here to ask the questions that matter. And if Reform UK can’t take the heat from one broadcaster pointing out a polling anomaly, how are they meant to endure the heat of governance?

The Rupert Lowe incident should have answered that. A former MEP, now MP for Great Yarmouth, Lowe gave a candid interview criticising the party’s direction and Farage’s leadership style. Within hours, he was out. Then came a swirl of briefings, allegations, and police referrals — all of which were later dropped.

Lowe has now launched defamation proceedings against Farage, Zia Yusuf, and Lee Anderson. The allegation? That the party tried to destroy his career — his life — because he dared to question the direction of travel. No internal review. No transparency. Just silence.

This is not strength. This is rot. The same party that declares the Tories morally bankrupt and Labour rudderless is now running the same playbook — just in a different colour. You can’t fight hypocrisy by becoming it.

Let’s not forget: Nigel Farage himself stood at a Reform UK press conference last year and said the polling industry was dishonest. That polling couldn’t be trusted. Now his supporters brandish favourable polls like divine scripture. Which is it?

This isn’t scrutiny. It’s salesmanship. And if the party’s entire ethos is that the system is rigged — but only when it doesn’t work for them — then what’s the endgame here? Reform UK claims to be the antidote. Right now, they’re just a different flavour of the same poison.

It used to be that dissent within a political movement was considered healthy. Now it’s heresy. Reform UK isn’t looking to challenge the system — they want to be immune from it. Immune from the press. Immune from questions. Immune from consequence.

And yet — they are winning. That’s the danger.

They’ve racked up stunning results in local elections. They’re converting polling success into real-world power. The headlines are full of them.

But again, the real question is not whether they can win. It’s whether they deserve to.

I expect the same backlash to this piece. That all I do is criticise them. That I’m a paid stooge. On and on. But I know some of you will hear what I’m saying and know I’m right. This isn’t about Reform UK. It’s about the cause, the movement, and the future of the country.

We are running out of time.

We can’t afford to get this wrong.

It’s time we demand more.
Demand better.
And demand that the standards we say we believe in — we actually uphold.

True friends call it out when you misstep.
And if asking the question makes me the enemy — maybe that’s the question you need to answer.

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