Is Reform The UK’s First Digital Party?
How Zia Yusuf and Nigel Farage changed their media strategy
Before we get into it, here’s some scene-setting. Global and UK media consumption trends (OfCom, Reuters) now show consumers rejecting the ‘old media’ and digesting content on the Meta, TikTok and YouTube platforms.
X, formerly known as Twitter, belongs in a tier below these platforms because of its much smaller user-base (around 600m MAUs). But X is arguably just as influential as the major platforms because politicians, policy-makers and the media still make extensive use of it.
In the UK, the trend outlier is the BBC, which still draws considerable viewership and yields influence over the political system. However, the corporation is facing serious economic and social headwinds, and that power is subsequently diminishing (my analysis is here).
For political communicators, that begs at least one major question: should political parties and their spokespeople engage with the old media?
Trump has partly answered that question by showing that you can ignore the old media, engage with non-political podcasters and build what I’ve dubbed as a ‘Call of Duty coalition’ of young male voters (link) between the ages of 18 to 35. But is that possible outside of America?
Beyond The USA
Under the chairmanship of Zia Yusuf, an investment banker turned entrepreneur, Reform UK is trying to execute a similar media strategy. Leader Nigel Farage has long had millions of followers on Facebook and Twitter, branching out to YouTube five years ago and then onto TikTok more recently.
Other prominent spokespeople in the party, most notably Rupert Lowe, are deploying similar tactics by creating ‘owned’ media content. The party is also using live streams of its rallies and standalone videos to spread its message across the platforms.
These tactics allow Reform to go straight to their voters, avoiding media gatekeepers, whilst increasing revenues and creating a sense of momentum (Reform now has more than 200,000 members).
But all of this isn’t exactly new or exciting. The new part of the strategy is how Reform engages with the old media. Some prominent British political journalists I spoke to for this article said they now felt frozen-out by the party.
They were used to dealing with Gawain Towler, a popular Westminster media relations expert who had been with Ukip, The Brexit Party and Reform for years. I interviewed him last year (link) after he was let go from the party.
Now, Reform is increasingly dealing with ‘friendlies’ in the media, including GB News and The Telegraph, and getting its spokespeople on popular podcasts, including The New Culture Forum, Winston Marshall’s channel and Triggernometry, to give a few examples.
And in moves similar to Trump’s and Musk’s social posting, Reform is boosting content from former Brexit Party MEP
(see above) and its own fan channels.It’s a low-risk, high-impact approach. Farage, Lowe and other Reform politicians get to share their views with millions of voters, they won’t be interrogated Andrew Neil-style (link) and the content can be clipped and shared across platforms.
Party veterans also know too well that the Tory media machine is turned on during the short-campaign of a general election, where The Sun, The Daily Mail, The Daily Express and The Telegraph will inevitably side with the Conservatives or Labour (link) and not Reform.
So why bother trying to appease the old media now if that relationship will count for nothing in the future?
We’re Not The USA
But the universe of podcasts and major YouTube channels in the UK is far smaller than in the US.
Some of the biggest current affair shows, including The Rest is Politics and The News Agents, are left-leaning and naturally hostile to Reform. There are also no major comedy or entertainment outlets which generate numbers comparable to Joe Rogan in the UK.
And, as previously mentioned , the BBC still has a major influence over the country. Some of the biggest shows are generated by the corporation, with the BBC having a stranglehold over the podcast industry in Britian.
There is also a risk, as Rishi Sunak found out during his time in Number 10, that the news vacuum will be filled by political journalists if you don’t engage with them.
Funnily enough, Rishi’s successor as Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has taken a similar approach, promising to provide policies in the future after a thorough post-election review.
But that plan has already hit a series of road-bumps, with donors and party officials sharing their frustrations about an apparent lack of progress from the Conservative leader.
This discontent has triggered a series of articles in the media. It’s claimed that Kemi has until May 2026 (link) to get her project back on course or she will be axed. Under pressure, Kemi has responded by unveiling some immigration policies (link).
Reform’s Treasurer Nick Candy is taking advantage of the situation by inviting disaffected Tory donors to fundraising dinners for his party (link).
That’s all good in the short-term, but if things start floundering for Reform, as they have with Kemi, which allies can they turn to in the media for help?
And unlike the Conservatives, Reform can’t rely on friendly think-tanks in SW1. So where can they get their policies from?
I understand that figures close to the party are actively seeking to rectify this issue by establishing a ‘CPS for Reform’ in the future.
Discipline And The Big Three
The success of Reform’s digital-first strategy is academic until the next general election. As it stands, the party is polling around 25% and it could secure more than 100 seats in the House of Commons.
But party discipline and messaging will be important during the short campaign. UK voters are typically most concerned about the economy, the NHS/healthcare and immigration (link).
What can Reform offer-up here and will it be appealing to swing seat voters in Nuneaton, Crewe and Middlesbrough? And when it comes to the issue of crime and justice, will the party’s top spokespeople provide diverging opinions?
As just one example, Farage has distanced himself from Tommy Robinson, while Lowe has made positive comments about him (link). Embracing the hard-right would be a sure way to turn off disaffected Tory and Labour voters heading into polling day.
And how does Reform create its own ‘Call of Duty coalition’? Its pro-crypto stance (Labour fails to acknowledge any other frontier tech beyond AI) and presence on TikTok is at least a first step in that direction.
AI Diplomacy
I wrote this for the day-job looking at JD Vance’s speech at the AI Action Summit in Paris (link). Starmer’s mid-Atlantic stance on AI regulation makes a lot of sense and should be praised. The EU, meanwhile, has become far too stubborn to admit that it’s stifling innovation and entrepreneurship. The body is all too happy being a super-regulator, even though that’s to the detriment of its overall mission.
Politics US Launches
The team behind the super-popular X aggregator Politics UK have launched a new account looking at American politics (link). “We’ve launched Politics US to bring our Politics UK audience the latest American political news but with the Politics UK style of short and snappy but informative,” News Hub Group told me. “Our main goal for the next few weeks is to build up consistent and strong engagement whilst we continue to build an established audience.”
Is The Content War Over?
Disney has flagged that it will spend $1bn less on creating content this year, moving its budget down to $24bn from $25bn for 2025. Hollywood is cooling on content spend after a major boom over the past decade (link).
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