Farage vows to overhaul Lords and judiciary to deliver Reform pledges

Nigel Farage stood before his party's annual conference and made a stark promise: if Reform UK wins power, the machinery of British government will bend to his will, and if it doesn't, he will break it and rebuild it.

The Reform leader laid out an ambitious first hundred days—stopping small boat crossings, cutting energy bills by £250 annually, scrapping net zero commitments. But the real substance of his speech was not what he would do, but how he would do it. He would declare a national emergency. Parliament would sit around the clock, six days a week, until his legislation passed. Civil servants who resisted would be fired and replaced with people from business. And if the House of Lords or the courts stood in his way, he would remake those institutions entirely.

On the Lords, Farage was explicit. He expected the chamber to fall in line with Reform's agenda. If it refused, he would appoint hundreds of new peers to secure a majority. If that proved too crude, he would hold a referendum to sweep the chamber away entirely. On the judiciary, he promised to strip away the European Convention on Human Rights as a constraint on judges, arguing that Parliament makes law and judges merely interpret it. "We don't want the courts striking down the will of the people," he said, adding that his government would "perhaps have to consider how judicial appointments work in the future."

The speech was meant to project readiness and momentum. Farage argued that the Conservatives had fourteen years in power and "failed absolutely miserably," while Labour's new Prime Minister Andy Burnham was asking for ten years to fix the country. Reform, by contrast, would deliver in one hundred days or sack the ministers responsible. He predicted Burnham would call an early election in spring 2027 and positioned his party as the only force capable of genuine change. He spoke of assembling a team with "frontline experience" and said he was still recruiting for major posts in defence and health.

The speech was interrupted repeatedly by protesters, including two women who held a banner reading "Reform works for billionaires" before being removed by security. Farage laughed it off, chanting "boring, boring, boring" as they left. But the disruptions were minor compared to the storm already engulfing the party. Two senior Reform officials had stepped down days earlier after Channel 4 News aired an undercover investigation revealing that party figures had discussed ways to circumvent electoral law to secure foreign donations, including one package worth £500,000. Farage insisted the party had "done nothing wrong" and "taken no illegal money," framing the allegations as evidence that opponents were "scared of us."

The timing was awkward. Reform had hoped to use the conference to rebuild momentum after a difficult summer dominated by questions about party finances. Instead, the gathering became a stage for Farage to defend his organization while simultaneously outlining how aggressively he would wield power if given the chance. His speech was notably light on new policy detail, focusing instead on method and will.

The political landscape has shifted beneath Reform's feet. For more than a year, the party had consistently topped national opinion polls. But that lead has eroded. Labour's support has risen since Burnham took office. And a new right-wing party, Restore Britain, founded by former Reform MP Rupert Lowe, has begun drawing away some of Reform's support. Farage's conference speech was an attempt to reassert dominance and remind the party faithful—and the country—that Reform remains the insurgent force in British politics, ready to govern differently and willing to remake the state itself to do so.