Fags, booze, hunting and cryptocurrency: if the brochures for the Reform UK conference in Birmingham are anything to go by, executives turning up to see Nigel Farage’s party will find an eclectic mix.
Starting on Friday, the party leading the opinion polls will hold its “next step” conference at the National Exhibition Centre, with a plan to show UK plc that it is the next party of government.
Attendees are expected to include JCB, TikTok and Airbnb, at an event where sponsorship packages priced up to £250,000 have been offered – all including booze, VIP access and branding opportunities. The party said it expected to welcome “hundreds” of businesses.
For any “visionary brands” taking the top “accelerator package”, a champagne breakfast with Farage awaits; as well as platinum bar access, unlimited complimentary drinks, and a custom cocktail named after their company at the Reform UK afterparty.
Supping with Farage is, though, not for everyone in corporate Britain.
The Guardian spoke to more than a dozen business executives about their companies’ attendance. All said they were apolitical and also went to other party conferences. Most said that junior staff were heading to Birmingham rather than top bosses, while several expressed reservations.
“Everyone feels awkward, no one wants to be called out as being there,” said one corporate affairs boss. “They’re a toxic brand, as well as a popular one – a very divisive brand. Some people don’t want their businesses to be seen as speaking to, or legitimising, them.
“Everyone can see Farage using businesses that turn up as a sort of, ‘Well, we’ve got all the businesses onside.’ That is the concern going on.”
At the weekend the Sunday Telegraph reported that Heathrow airport had been “unveiled” as a sponsor, in an article suggesting that big business was “flocking” to Farage’s party. The airport issued a statement suggesting that it was not implicitly backing Reform.
“Heathrow has had a significant presence at major party conferences for decades and has hosted airport-style lounges at Labour, Conservative and SNP conferences for over 10 years,” a spokesperson said.
Still, bosses see getting closer to Reform and understanding what makes it tick as increasingly important, after its sweeping local election victories this year and as opinion polls suggest it could win hundreds of seats at a general election.
One executive said the prospect of Farage winning the keys to Downing Street reminded him of Brexit, when the boardrooms of Britain were caught on the hop by the shock leave vote in 2016.
“There is a sniffiness but it is part of British life, love it or hate it. There are so many people out there who aren’t on X, or reading the same things, who would put their cross in the box. People forget that again and again. You look at the polls – it could happen.”
Most lobbyists said they were being dispatched by their bosses on a fact-finding mission.
Alice Grimes, head of public affairs at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), said its 150,000 members expected the lobby group to report back.
“There’s a genuine intrigue about the party, they are still a little bit of an unknown. Businesses want to find out about the internal structures, who the key figures are, both on the inside and the influencing peripheries.”
With more than 12,000 people expected to attend, there is a mix of business interests targeting the conference.
Hunting and bloodsports lobbyists are among prominent sponsors, including the Countryside Alliance, and the British Association for Shooting and Conservation. The latter is the UK’s most powerful hunting lobby, and its president is the Marquess of Hamilton, whose family has controlled a 6,000-hectare (15,000-acre) estate in Northern Ireland for more than 400 years.
Farmers, aggrieved by the Labour government’s inheritance tax changes, are represented by the National Farmers’ Union, which is hosting a Great British Brunch, with a menu showcasing UK produce. The NFU said it was apolitical.
Libertarian groups, free-market thinktanks and climate-sceptics will also rub shoulders with Reform’s top brass, including at a session looking at the lessons from Donald Trump’s America.
Big tobacco companies are also attending and are likely to receive a warm welcome from Farage, a chain-smoking opponent of the smoking ban.
Forest, a pro-smoking campaign group, is sponsoring an event on “politics and prohibition”, and Japan Tobacco International (JTI), the group behind brands including Benson & Hedges and Silk Cut, is hosting a panel with the free-market Adam Smith Institute on reviving Britain’s high streets.
JTI said it engaged with all major UK political parties. “Reform UK is no exception, and we look forward to participating in the panel that will discuss how to reverse the decline of UK high streets.”
Crypto companies are heavily involved, highlighting Reform’s promise to accept bitcoin donations and deregulate the sector. Reform’s efficiency chief, Zia Yusuf, will be in conversation with Stani Kulechov, the Finnish founder of a firm called Aave Labs, and the crypto startup Zebec Technologies is a sponsor.
However, other sectors will head to Birmingham on tenterhooks, including energy companies in the crosshairs of Reform’s anti-net zero stance, after its deputy leader, Richard Tice, promised to rip up green energy contracts. They say that could hit investment in Britain, costing jobs in the communities the party is targeting.
Several energy companies are sending envoys to understand how Reform’s position might shift as it charges up for the next general election, including Drax, National Grid, Scottish Power and SSE.
Sources in oil and gas, renewables and manufacturing suggested that Reform was beginning to grasp that its promises could backfire with business, even among some heavy polluters it might have banked on for support.
“They are starting to realise that a lot of the same companies they want to be investors in an anti-net zero electricity system are often the same ones investing in renewables,” said one corporate adviser.
Many said it remained tricky to engage with a highly confrontational party campaigning on a populist platform. Others highlighted contradictions between its libertarian instincts and its plans to nationalise British Steel and half of the water industry.
Grimes said business leaders wanted to know more about how the party would reconcile such tensions. “They’re pro-tradespeople, SMEs and economic nationalism. But how does that marry with deregulation and the liberal side of a small-state, low-tax party?”
Reform is, however, still in the growth stage. The party has begun building its external affairs capacity, led by Matthew MacKinnon, a former adviser to the Welsh Conservative MP Chris Davies.
Simon Marcus, a former north London Tory councillor, who was twice defeated standing for the Conservatives as a prospective MP, is also leading policy development.
Getting closer to business could, though, sit uneasily for some of the party faithful, lobbyists suggested, should Reform get much closer to the corporate affairs brigade at future conferences.
Still, wooing bosses is a tried-and-tested strategy in the Westminster playbook when preparing for government.
“They want to have more business leaders see them as a respectable party with reasonable policies, which feel implementable,” said one lobbyist. “Dare I say, it almost feels like Labour a few years ago.”
