Pyrotechnics, fireworks, balloons – Reform UK’s conference was unlike any other. Back in September, Nigel Farage’s party used its annual gathering to underscore its message that it offers something different.
Throughout Birmingham’s NEC, screens flashed up images of the party’s leader. When it was time for Mr Farage’s speech, delegates flocked to hear him speak. As he ascended the stage, a lengthy video montage of his life, set to music, played behind him.
Among the packed crowd of almost 4,000 members, there was the usual crop of grey-haired supporters but sprinkled among them were a surprising number of young, white men.
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Meet the young Reform voters
Since Reform’s leader made a surprise return to frontline politics, he’s leant even harder into anti-establishment rhetoric. The political elite don’t want Nigel Farage to succeed, is his mantra.
The problem Reform UK faces is that it now has five MPs, giving it a presence on the green benches alongside the very establishment it rails against. It’s next job is to try to professionalise the party beyond the cult of Nigel and widen its supporter base.
Farage’s conference speech contained a serious message; it was time for Reform to “grow up” and think about its long-term plan. Looking around the room, it seemed the future of the party might already have arrived.
While most of its supporters are still older white men. According to YouGov’s post-election analysis, Reform was the third most popular party with men aged 50-64 – just one point shy of the Tories.
But there are signs of growing support among younger age groups, including young men aged 18-24, where Reform was the third most popular choice, alongside the Green Party.
For Gen-Z women, it was the least popular option, alongside the Tories. But it was among 16-17-year-olds that the gender gap was the widest.
Surprisingly, Farage’s party was as popular as Labour among young men in that age group, according to a poll by JL Partners in the week of the general election. The contrast with young women in that group is stark – Reform UK lagging far behind Labour and the Green Party.
Image: Reform UK leader Nigel Farage speaking during the party’s annual conference. Pic: PA
So, in a party where the median age of an MP is 60, how is it hooking in younger voters?
The popularity of Gen-Z skewing social platforms like TikTok is part of the answer. Reform was quick to engage with a younger audience there – racking up 308,100 followers. That is more than any other major political party, just ahead of Labour on 233,100.
Farage’s personal TikTok now has over a million followers, a fact he announced last week during a press conference in which he said the party’s membership had reached 100,000.
He also gave a breakdown of how old his social media followers seem to be. “We get tens of millions of views every single month. Two thirds of that million are under the age of 35. Half of them are under the age of 25. Something remarkable is happening with Gen-Z,” he said.
Among its young followers are right-wing political influencers, like Nicholas Lissack.
Image: Nicholas Lissack is a right-wing influencer
A smartly dressed student with strong right-wing views, Nick was surprised when his first TikTok video supporting Reform went viral in the run-up to the 2024 general election. In the video, which was watched almost 4 million times in 24 hours, he urged other first-time voters to follow his example and support Reform UK.
A week later, Nick found himself backstage at a pre-election Reform UK rally, meeting his “political hero” – Mr Farage. In another video, he calls their conversation “beautiful” and says they discussed the “ludicrous” price of pints and golf, alongside politics.
He describes his videos as “short, snappy and energetic… I come across like I’m having a fun time”. They’re snappily titled too – a glance over his TikTok page offers two-minute videos with titles like Labour Hates Us, Is Reform UK Fascist? and Ban Notting Hill Carnival. That energy has also translated across X/Twitter, where he now has tens of thousands of followers.
But he admits, not all his peers share his views.
“I lost quite a few friends over this but in that time, I gained 40,000 Twitter followers.”
Since we spoke, he’s gained a further 10,000.
Image: Nick went viral, and then found himself meeting his Reform ‘hero’
So what about women?
Reform UK was proud of the fact it was able to stand a candidate in nearly every seat.
But, according to the campaign group 50:50 parliament, less than a fifth of its candidates were women. Five white men were chosen for seats the party deemed winnable, leading to Nigel Farage, Richard Tice, Rupert Lowe and James McMurdock being elected to parliament.
Controversially, this year, Nigel Farage told Sky News that the self-proclaimed misogynist influencer Andrew Tate was “an important voice for men”.
Tate is currently banned from YouTube for breaching hate speech rules. He is also banned from Facebook and was described by Meta as a “dangerous individual”. He was also accused of rape, people trafficking and organised crime – though he denies these allegations.
For Nick, being frank about his political opinions has helped his videos reach a wide audience. He attributes his success to men feeling “increasingly disenfranchised” in the wake of “fourth-wave feminism”.
“Reform offers an exciting alternative because it doesn’t discriminate… Young men are drawn to it because they see it as an opportunity to dig their teeth into politics,” he said.
Image: George Finch has started The New Reformer, an online magazine
Another new voice in the right-wing political space is George Finch. He enjoyed similar success to Nick over the summer, making videos in support of Mr Farage’s party. Since then, he’s started The New Reformer, an online magazine which he describes as “By Reformers, for Reformers”. Articles have provocative titles like “Project 2029 – dismantling the woke state” and “Since When Is It Divisive to Be British?”.
He thinks the party doesn’t have a problem attracting voters who are women.
“To say that women are put off by Reform is wrong. If it’s something you think is a problem I’m sure HQ are looking at it”.
Image: George says he doesn’t think the party has a problem attracting women
Will it work?
“There was something about TikTok that worked for Reform,” says Dr Jilly Kay, a senior lecturer in Communication and Media at Loughborough University. “Nigel Farage’s performance and his way of connecting with people worked effectively. We see that in the increased support among young male voters.”
But she also thinks Reform can tap into something more fundamental and give clarity to voters who feel adrift after a period of unstable politics.
“As a young man you’re told you can’t do this, you can’t do that. Farage is trying to give that sense of permission,” Dr Kay explains. “[Reform UK] has that sense of freedom and power which people like Farage claim is being denied to men and boys.”
But other experts warn that this surge in youthful support could be being overstated.
“Reform undoubtedly has distinct appeal among some sections of young voters: specifically, young men from poorer backgrounds, and who are unlikely to attend university,” says Dr Stuart Fox, a senior lecturer in politics at the University of Exeter.
But according to Dr Fox, Reform UK is far less popular among young voters overall than parties such as the Greens, Liberal Democrats and Labour. He also points out the challenges of engaging the specific youthful demographic most likely to support them.
“Those young people to whom Reform most appeal – young men from poorer backgrounds – are by far the least likely to vote. It will be a real challenge for Reform to capitalise on its appeal to those voters in elections.”
The first signs of whether it can in fact capitalise on this so-called “bro vote” will be at next year’s local elections. It will be a key test for the party and, if it succeeds, its ambitions are high.
Reform UK wants to secure its future and not only challenge the Tories’ status as the leading right-wing group in UK politics but eventually become the governing party in Britain.
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In response Reform UK said: “Reform UK has all the momentum in British politics. This is shown by the surge in support by younger voters.
“We have now surpassed 100,000 members and our polling continues to rise. Young people recognise that the Tories and Labour have failed them and that Britain needs Reform.
“We will harness this momentum as we head into next May and future elections and offer young people real change.”
Heathrow Airport bosses had been warned of a potential substation failures less than a week before a major power outage closed the airport for a day, a committee of MPs has heard.
The chief executive of Heathrow Airline Operators’ Committee Nigel Wicking told MPs of the Transport Committee he raised issues about resilience on 15 March after cable and wiring took out lights on a runway.
A fire at an electricity substation in west London meant the power supply was disrupted to Europe’s largest airport for a day – causing travel chaos for around 200,000 passengers.
“I’d actually warned Heathrow of concerns that we had with regard to the substations and my concern was resilience”, Mr Wicking said.
“So the first occasion was to team Heathrow director on the 15th of the month of March. And then I also spoke to the chief operating officer and chief customer officer two days before regarding this concern.
“And it was following a number of, a couple of incidents of, unfortunately, theft, of wire and cable around some of the power supply that on one of those occasions, took out the lights on the runway for a period of time. That obviously made me concerned.”
Mr Wicking also said he believed Heathrow’s Terminal 5 could have been ready to receive repatriation flights by “late morning” on the day of the closure, and that “there was opportunity also to get flights out”.
However, Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye said keeping the airport open during last month’s power outage would have been “disastrous”.
There was a risk of having “literally tens of thousands of people stranded in the airport, where we have nowhere to put them”, Mr Woldbye said.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
Another 23 female potential victims have reported that they may have been raped by Zhenhao Zou – the Chinese PhD student detectives believe may be one of the country’s most prolific sex offenders.
The Metropolitan Police launched an international appeal after Zou, 28, was convicted of drugging and raping 10 women following a trial at the Inner London Crown Court last month.
Detectives have not confirmed whether the 23 people who have come forward add to their estimates that more than 50 other women worldwide may have been targeted by the University College London student.
Metropolitan Police commander Kevin Southworth said: “We have victims reaching out to us from different parts of the globe.
“At the moment, the primary places where we believe offending may have occurred at this time appears to be both in England, here in London, and over in China.”
Image: Metropolitan Police commander Kevin Southworth
Zou lived in a student flat in Woburn Place, near Russell Square in central London, and later in a flat in the Uncle building in Churchyard Row in Elephant and Castle, south London.
He had also been a student at Queen’s University Belfast, where he studied mechanical engineering from 2017 until 2019. Police say they have not had any reports from Belfast but added they were “open-minded about that”.
“Given how active and prolific Zou appears to have been with his awful offending, there is every prospect that he could have offended anywhere in the world,” Mr Southworth said.
“We wouldn’t want anyone to write off the fact they may have been a victim of his behaviour simply by virtue of the fact that you are from a certain place.
“The bottom line is, if you think you may have been affected by Zhenhao Zou or someone you know may have been, please don’t hold back. Please make contact with us.”
Image: Pic: Met Police
Zou used hidden or handheld cameras to record his attacks, and kept the footage and often the women’s belongings as souvenirs.
He targeted young, Chinese women, inviting them to his flat for drinks or to study, before drugging and assaulting them.
Zou was convicted of 11 counts of rape, with two of the offences relating to one victim, as well as three counts of voyeurism, 10 counts of possession of an extreme pornographic image, one count of false imprisonment and three counts of possession of a controlled drug with intent to commit a sexual offence, namely butanediol.
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Moment police arrest rapist student
Mr Southworth said: “Of those 10 victims, several were not identified so as we could be sure exactly where in the world they were, but their cases, nevertheless, were sufficient to see convictions at court.
“There were also, at the time, 50 videos that were identified of further potential female victims of Zhenhao Zou’s awful crimes.
“We are still working to identify all of those women in those videos.
“We have now, thankfully, had 23 victim survivors come forward through the appeal that we’ve conducted, some of whom may be identical with some of the females that we saw in those videos, some of whom may even turn out to be from the original indicted cases.”
Mr Southworth added: “Ultimately, now it’s the investigation team’s job to professionally pick our way through those individual pieces of evidence, those individual victims’ stories, to see if we can identify who may have been a victim, when and where, so then we can bring Zou to justice for the full extent of his crimes.”
Mr Southworth said more resources will be put into the investigation, and that detectives are looking to understand “what may have happened without wishing to revisit the trauma, but in a way that enables [the potential victims] to give evidence in the best possible way.”
The Metropolitan Police is appealing to anyone who thinks they may have been targeted by Zou to contact the force either by emailing survivors@met.police.uk, or via the major incident public portal on the force’s website.
An 11-year-old girl who went missing after entering the River Thames has been named as Kaliyah Coa.
An “extensive search” has been carried out after the incident in east London at around 1.30pm on Monday.
Police said the child had been playing during a school inset day and entered the water near Barge House Causeway, North Woolwich.
A recovery mission is now said to be under way to find Kaliyah along the Thames, with the Metropolitan Police carrying out an extensive examination of the area.
Image: Barge House Causeway is a concrete slope in North Woolwich leading into the Thames
Chief Superintendent Dan Card thanked members of the public and emergency teams who responded to “carry out a large-scale search during a highly pressurised and distressing time”.
He also confirmed drone technology and boats were being used to “conduct a thorough search over a wide area”.
He added: “Our specialist officers are supporting Kaliyah’s family through this deeply upsetting time and our thoughts go out to all those impacted by what has happened.”
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“Equally we appreciate this has affected the wider community who have been extremely supportive. You will see extra officers in the area during the coming days.”
On Monday, Kerry Benadjaoud, a 62-year-old resident from the area, said she heard of the incident from her next-door neighbour, who “was outside doing her garden and there was two little kids running, and they said ‘my friend’s in the water'”.
When she arrived at the scene with a life ring, a man told her he had called the police, “but he said at the time he could see her hands going down”.
Barge House Causeway is a concrete slope that goes directly into the River Thames and is used to transport boats.
Residents pointed out that it appeared to be covered in moss and was slippery.