Knowing the interest and support for Reform many of you show I thought I would do one of my rare pieces on an Opposition party, as they have been much in the news in recent weeks.
I did not expect Reform to win the Makerfield by election, and agree with Richard Tice who said that some Reform voters voted Labour just to get rid of the PM. The same was true for some Conservative voters.
There have been five by elections this Parliament. One was won by each of the Conservatives, Reform and Greens, and one each stayed with Labour and the SNP. The Labour hold was of course a Burnham gain in the unusual circumstances of a main party candidate running against their party’s own leader and policies! We should regard Makerfield as a one off, where Burnham got a huge vote unrelated to the unpopularity of his party and of the government he is meant to support.
Reform’s performance in the other two by elections on Thursday was poor. They did not take enough votes off the Conservatives to stop a convincing Conservative win in Aberdeen, though replacing Conservatives is their stated aim. They made a bit of progress in Arbroath but fell well short of the SNP. The Conservatives also added to their vote and came above Reform in votes cast. The two combined still fell a little short of the SNP total, so the Reform vote did not lose the Conservatives the seat on this occasion.
Reform has made better progress in some Councils. Its national equivalent vote share peaked in its good performance in May 2025 at 32%, and was 5% lower in May 2026. The Council and by election votes this year show Reform peaked last year and are currently in decline.
Reform’s main asset is Nigel Farage, a talented political campaigner. He has mainly succeeded in getting across to UK voters and politicians the unacceptable levels of illegal migration, and the adverse consequences of rapid legal migration. This has led to a big Conservative rethink and apology for too much legal migration in the last Parliament, and policy change before the Conservatives left office which is now reducing numbers substantially. It has also led Labour to offer to smash the gangs and to try to control illegals, so far with very limited results.
Reform’s main weakness is the lack of thought through policy to mend the UK economy and boost jobs and incomes in the way many voters want. Populism based on plenty of expensive polling leads Reform to U turns, a lack of detail and a muddle with a mixture of socialist proposals that will not work and other more sensible measures. Reform’s large bank tax – paying no interest on reserves- would likely lead to recessionary conditions, hitting bank credit and loans. Their repeal of their big tax cuts package of 2024 leaves business and investors in the dark about what they might do if they got influence in government. Their flirtation with abolition of the two child cap on benefits left them in a weak position on benefit reform. Their failure to reduce any total budget in the Councils they took over in May 2025 has left their UK Doge chain saw project with no petrol in the saw. They fail to start with thought through achievable spending reductions and flirt with ruinously expensive nationalisation plans. They then lack any fiscal space to cut taxes.
The other problem they have is their inability to get on with each other. The fall out between Reform and Rupert Lowe is costing them, with a rival tougher anti immigration party now cutting into their vote on their core proposition. Mr Yousef does not look best pleased about the arrival and role of Mr Jenrick and some think Ms Braverman’s past failure as Home Secretary to get control of the borders is a weakness for their party. In Gorton they tried one of their ablest members, Matt Goodwin, who lost to the Greens. In Makerfield they chose a local candidate who had alienated some women who lost to Burnham.
Reform speaks little about Brexit these days as they try to woo Remain voters. Their predecessor party UKIP of course did not secure the referendum to get us out as some try to claim. Conservative MPs led the charge for a referendum in the 2010-15 Parliament . We got 111 votes for our referendum motion in 2011, and 130 votes for our attempted amendment to the Queen’s speech in 2013 to have a referendum bill. It was when I and a few others reported to David Cameron that we had half the Conservative party in rebel support of an EU referendum that he announced he would put one in the Manifesto for next time. UKIP did not come into that discussion. The whole Conservative party then backed a private members Bill to hold an EU referendum with 304 largely Conservative MPs voting for it, only for it to be blocked in the Lords.After winning the 2015 election the Conservative party honoured its promise and delivered a referendum. Only one UKIP MP was elected in 2015. It needed Conservative votes in the Commons to build pressure for the vote and to persuade the PM to turn a rebel cause into a central Conservative party cause and promise.
Addition:
Reform supporters replying to this want to rehearse all the criticisms of the last Conservative government instead of talking about their party. This site gave plenty of space to criticising the last government for four years of its tenure and voters gave their judgement. There is no need to repeat all that. The new Conservative Leader has changed the party and admitted the mistakes. The unwillingness of Reform backers to discuss their party and to debate their current policies reflects another Reform weakness. It is not set up as a democratic party where members can demand change and can vote out leaders like a normal party.
June 21, 2026
Good morning.
Whilst I do not disagree with your statement JR, I do think it is better to see NF as a double-edged sword. As a man-manager and leader he is both very fragile and paranoid. He has left a trail behind him of once personal friends and allies now as bitter foes. One such, is now, as the Americans would say, “is eating his lunch.”
NF has ruined the Reform brand by brining in so many ‘failed’ Ex-Tory’s. Career politicians more interested in miniating their careers and the status quo of their financial backers that fixing the nation and dealing with the Blairite Reforms. Makersfield was a very bad defeat for Reform and may mark the beginning of the end as Reform over time have been slipping in the polls, in part, due to the above.
June 21, 2026
Mark B:
The Makerfield by-election was an anomaly, caused by so many voters wanting to oust Keir Starmer by the fastest available means: voting for Keir Starmer; as previously acknowledged.
In the 2024 general election: Reform UK won 31.8% of the vote in Makerfield.
In the 2026 by-election: Reform candidate Robert Kenyon, as bad as he might have been, INCREASED that share by about 2.7 percentage points, taking Reform to roughly 34.5%.
June 21, 2026
Yes 34.5% is a respectable result. There were very particular circumstances in Makersfield as John says many wanted to get rid of 2TK. All in ll a good result for Reform.
June 21, 2026
‘ Reform’s main asset is Nigel Farage, a talented political campaigner. ’
Agreed. He is the politician most capable of speaking convincingly, off the cuff, on any topic, which is why the BBC are afraid of him. He is the only politician that could get away with wearing yellow corduroy trousers without alienating voters. Many politicians are now too frightened to wear a tie. Farage proves that, if you deliver the right message, people don’t care what you are wearing.
On the negative side, Farage seems to be a good talker but not someone who gets on well with his party members – particularly those who might vie with him in popularity.
Reform don’t seem to have yet managed to fully implement their promises in local councils and Farage is accused of neglecting his constituency role to grandstand on national matters. There is also the issue of how the Reform party is set up as a limited company.
June 21, 2026
Reform, even if they do win a good majority will (after 3 more years of appalling socialism from Burnham and Labour) will have one hell of a job delivering what needs to be done against the full force of state sector unions, the blob, the legal profession, the courts, the quangos, many “charities”, the many international bodies… and with a fully wrecked doom-loop economy with so many of the productive and tax paying having left or given up.
June 21, 2026
King Charles to reveal personal tax bill for first time as monarch it seems.
Well we already know he got about £500million from the Queen saving £200 million as he is IHT exempt then when he dies William will doubless save another £200 million plus by being exempt.
So not sure how many public brownie points he will win with this, surely better to keep quiet. He and William should also keep quiet on their totally hypocritical, do as I say not as I do, climate alarmist religion to win some more Brownie points. Smile, cut ribbons and keep out of politics like your sensible mother! Though even she foolishly pushed the duff Covid “vaccines”!
June 21, 2026
LL,
Agreed. Many people don’t bother to vote.
That number may increase as the electorate gets disillusioned with the idea of ‘saviours’ after all the clowns we have seen in parliament in past decades.
June 21, 2026
Farage brought in ex Tories who had experience of being in Government, of being Ministers of State in order to pass that experience on to Reform Members. How else were they to learn, they have to be as ready as they can be.
June 21, 2026
Yes. And all have failed and some have had to resign in disgrace. Hardly A1 material.
June 21, 2026
@Mark B – agreed so many ‘‘failed’ Ex-Tory’s’ destroyed the reasoning for reforming UK Polatics
June 21, 2026
Well with first past the post so often there is a favourite to win and another candidate who is the best chance of stopping them. All the other votes are wasted. FPTP voting distorts who you vote for and further distort the representation you get per vote after the vote.
The latest 7-poll rolling average from June 2026 indicates the following national vote shares:
Reform UK: 27.1%
Conservative Party: 19.0%
Labour Party: 18.7%
Green Party: 13.3%
Liberal Democrats: 12.3%
Others: 4.1%
So it is likely that Reform with be in the top two in the majority of seats and will usually pick up these extra FPTP (one of the top two) votes.
Makerfield was different in that people were voting Labour and Burnham not because they liked either but because they could not stand the existing Starmer Government.
Hopefully Starmer will go before his new style “HIP pack” agenda comes in and this is hopefully then dropped by Burnham. About the only sensible thing Cameron’s government did was to drop HIP packs (that and eventually when forced to give a (rigged mainly by Osborne) Brexit Referendum) but even then he kept the moronic expensive and pointless EPC energy certificates.
June 21, 2026
Our electoral system is excellent at expelling unpopular governments, as shown in the last general election. Contrast this with PR systems where the governing party is able to continue in office by building another coalition. Getting rid of Labour will mean voting for the party most likely to defeat them.
June 21, 2026
Alas not very good at replacing them with anything better. It is certainly not democratic as if you vote for what you want your vote is often wasted might as well not bother. FPTP does tend to deliver fewer coalitions but then the parties often become coalitions.
The only real democracy is direct democracy. This way you can choose the direction of travel rather than select a usually dishonest driver elected on a manifest of lies every five years or so who is likely to do the reverse once elected. A driver often bought by vested interests like the unions, the renewables con merchant grant farmers, the EU… or controlled by back benchers. As they say most people who aspire to be a politician show themselves to be unsuitable with a few honourable exceptions like JR circa 10% perhaps.
June 21, 2026
The underlying problem is that there is very little democratic control of policy, which is largely determined by the Civil Service and quangocracy and international treaties negotiated by them. That must be overturned before democracy can be restored.
June 21, 2026
@Cynic – 100% agreed. Only politicians think they ‘win’, not recognising that for the most part they ‘loose’ elections. Having a lame duck propped up by a minority is the worst of the worst
June 21, 2026
‘Our electoral system is excellent ‘ at allowing incompetent, lying, allegedly treasonable people to cause havoc and lasting damage over the course of 5 years.
June 21, 2026
Starmer tomorrow perhaps?
On all the promises I made for Growth, Smash the Gangs, not to increase IHT or NI, not to tax working people, to reduce energy costs, to deliver sound defences I did the reverse and delivered a Doom Loop. I lied that we did not do Two Tier justice and policing and fell out with the USA. I hugely damaged many good schools. I am thus totally despised and so I resign.
But then on the plus side I did deliver some rather dire school breakfast clubs!
June 21, 2026
@Lifelogic – the dire state of UK Politics if the rumours are correct, a man that wasn’t selected but appointed to run in a election, will be appointed receive a coronation to take over the rule of the UK, will then make up have a new manifesto on how he will rule. The electorate, the people paying the bills whose power they have been lent will have no say.
This is Labour picking up more ideas from the Tories, deny election wishes – Brexit, not letting the Party vote in the leadership, 5year terms to dictate without seeking validation and approval and so on. It is the whole of the UK Parliament that slowly and stealthily that has corrupted itself from within.
June 21, 2026
That’s a good “rolling polls” analysis, the right of centre would be sure to get it if they played nice together. We really need a good Conservative govern ment on the lines of Maggie’s (mostly) success, when we were high on the world stage we were letting people buy there own houses and build a future for their offspring, we were doing well “making things” and , oh no, exporting them (we still do to a degree), we had reasonable energy prices but we had energy security. We were able to be fairly well able to sort the Falkland Islands problems out.
The previuos government esentally “blairite” who undertook to follow the previous Tory plans then cleverly altered so many things to conform to the Fabian Society (those aspirations were the catalyst for Orwell to write 1984, after he left the Labour party and how apposite thst book is today, It’s all coming together rather well, don’t you think. The last governments had every chance to remove so much of those new laws but did nothing. Whoever wins from the right (providence please help us!) need a strong mandate and plan to go back to Thatcher principles modernised for today’s world.
Farage when in UKIP had a lot of policies which were very attractive and would have brought this country alonf nicely. Whatever happened to those plans? And asking that question, none of the main parties including the Conservatives have aplan today either. Burnham doean’ and side by side he looks like a younger Starmer without grey hair. Heaven help us all!
June 21, 2026
Kemi Badenoch has killed off any prospect of an electoral pact with Nigel Farage after Reform UK’s poor showing in last week’s by-elections.
As you said Sir John a lot of Reform voters lent there votes to liebour to get Burnham in to oust Starmer out akin to the Red Wall voters in the 2019 GE to get Brexit through, so at the end of the day I think there will be some sort of pact with Reform/Tories or we will get another 5 years of the lefties we have in situation now and that will not do for the good of our country
June 21, 2026
@Mick – the only problem there is the so-called back channel Johnson Farage Pact(Farage would not put up candidates in Tory seats) which he(Boris) reneged on.
June 21, 2026
In the next GE, is Reform and the Tories win 51% or more, I really cant see either party’s members being against a coalition. Yet 5 more years of Labour would be a very strong argument.
June 21, 2026
All politicians and political parties have their failings and personal disputes; the important thing is the voting public’s perception of them, as recorded in the nationwide opinion polls for which Reform, a relatively new party, have led most of the last twelve months. Reinforced by capturing Mayors/Seats and Councils in the local elections, which again Reform have defied the pundits on many occasions. Reform will undoubtedly form the next government despite the efforts of those who may then face prison, loss of office, and pensions for gross misconduct in public office, i.e. grooming gangs, Post Office scandal and the results of forensic accounting.
June 21, 2026
‘It was when I and a few others reported to David Cameron that we had half the Conservative party in rebel support of an EU referendum that he announced he would put one in the Manifesto for next time. UKIP did not come into that discussion. ‘
Amusing skirt around the Elephant in the UK media. Cameron really really did not want to allow the Ref, but accepted UKIP had raised it as vital to any Conservative survival of an election. And when Dave was defeated in the Ref he promptly threw his toys out of the pram. Recall differs!
Reply Your view is wrong.David Cameron did not want to face a leadership challenge over the EU so made our policy on a referendum party policy to stop that. He and those of us who led the pressure for a referendum both thought UKIP would not win any seats in a General elections so we were not motivated by fear of UKIP.
June 21, 2026
A very informative take on that by Douglas Carswell ‘The Long March from 1992’ in Anthony Seldon, ed. ‘The Brexit Effect, 2016-2026’. As said by Sir John, things are not (always) what was reported at the time.
BTW, a very interesting book with multiple contributions by both ‘Remainers’ (some of them even acknowledging the way they failed to put a proper argument for staying) and ‘Leavers’ (some of them going over the fluff that we were given during the referendum campaign).
And only £12.53 for the Kindle version.
June 21, 2026
reply to reply …a case of taking Conservative votes away but not enough to win seats. Just like Restore.
June 21, 2026
Was not the fear of them taking votes greater than the fear of them taking seats?
June 21, 2026
Congrats to the Tories for a great win in Aberdeen. A lot of sense spoken on the oil and gas industry in the heart of the oil and gas industry.
Reform again chose another candidate who when placed under intense scrutiny – which will not get less for any Reform candidate- was found wanting (as I am pretty sure most of us would be, but we are not standing to be MPs).
They need more cogent policies rather than being lead down whatever the public express an interest in.
They need values that are obvious and easily explainable. Trying to be everything to everyone is not a winning strategy.
I’d vote for Kemi personally, but not the LibDem party she leads. After Gorton all the Yellow Tories came out, “We need to return to the centre (which is now very much on the Left) etc”. Not for me. Ever.
If Kemi gets rid of these LibDems, and follows up her rhetoric with similar good sense policies, like the O&G, then yes I would seriously consider voting for the Tories. But not until then.
June 21, 2026
I will not vote for the same people that stymied the Brexit negotiations by removing “No Deal” from the table, and insisting that any deal had to be vetted by them. Do I think these people know what is best for the UK – no chance.
June 21, 2026
david starkey was on triggernometry, his most recent interview there is a pretty spot on analysis. well worth a watch.
June 21, 2026
Indeed a very good combination!
June 21, 2026
Reform is still trying to find its way on various policy positions. But what they are doing is gathering in the background people of talent who can look at those issues. Their main challenge at the moment is not to “frighten the horses” by poorly managed release of policy positions on the one hand and blokeish pronouncements from the past on social media that alienate half their potential voters in the present. I hope they take on board the criticisms you have made.
As for the Conservative Party, I appreciate the work you and others did to get the referendum but the sad truth is that the party, when in government, was hamstrung by a strong europhile and wet contingent that undermined the potential benefits and left us with a dogs breakfast for Labour to exploit. Quite why net zero was allowed to rear its head during that time, when fuel security is the real issue, is anybody’s guess. I like Kemi but I’m not convinced by the people behind her. Maybe you can do a blog on the current make up of the parliamentary party and whether the hearts and minds of those still there gives us anything to be positive about.
June 21, 2026
Interesting, you want ‘The Gospel according to Saint John’ …
June 21, 2026
‘what they are doing is gathering in the background people of talent who can look at those issues’
Really? that is hardly essential to getting into Government – look at least to the last 2 Governments.
June 21, 2026
Referendum through gritted teeth. Project fear. Thin gruel watered down. Disastrous Mrs May. Years of “Stop Brexit”. No real acceptance of the democratic vote. No losers consent but lots of determined resistance and now Starmer and his gang of rejoiners pushing forward. We still do not have what we thought we were voting for. Dreadful chapter in our history.
June 21, 2026
The problem with Reform, Tice and Farage is their dodgy finances. The public, suffering with the food and other inflation – (which has been caused by the inexorable rise in oil and gas prices and has nothing to do with net zero whatsoever) expect the finances of their politicians to be honest, open and transparent.
Undoubtedly this issue has affected support for Reform at the recent byelections. Reform have fought 5 byelections in this parliament. They have been soundly defeated in four of them. The fifth, they won by 6 votes after recounts.
The public overwhelmingly support net zero and wish to see an end to the burning of fossil fuels, which is destroying our lovely planet. Moderating posts which disagree with Badenoch’s pro fossil fuel, anti-net zero, anti EV party line is counterproductive; note that the only cabinet minister who has held on to his budget is Miliband
June 21, 2026
I can’t be bothered to i detail SG – most Net Zero policies make no logical sense at all – as for Milliband he is also the only cabinet member that I believe is possibly completely insane.
June 21, 2026
”The UK’s national legal limit for annual Nitrogen Dioxide (NO₂) is currently 40 µg/m³. World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines and EU & UK net-zero laws, target a reduction of ambient road limits to 20 µg/m³ by 2030” thereby removing all fossil fuel cars (not a ban, they just have to comply with zero emmissions) ….madness
June 21, 2026
http://www.gov.uk 13/04/2026 ‘Pollutant concentrations for the Daily Air Quality Index (DAQI)’.
What qualifications or life experience have you got to say that reducing the threshold is ‘madness’?
In a couple of years (I wish you as many years as possible, I am not that mean …) with the summer temperatures getting more often over 30C such a reduction simply makes sense. Have you ever been on London North Circular Road in conditions like today?
sciencedirect.com 15/01/2024 ‘Long-term NO2 exposure and mortality: a comprehensive meta-analysis’.
http://www.gov.uk 22/08/2018 ‘Nitrogen oxide: effects on mortality’.
In case you do not know (which obviously you don’t have a clue) a permanent exposure to 10 microgram/m^3 has been shown to be detrimental to health. But maybe you’re already too old and … ‘après moi le deluge’.
June 21, 2026
Off Topic. …Starmer ‘I’ll never walk away’ – yeah right.
June 21, 2026
Starmer’s only mandate was we have to vote for you to ditch the Con Socialists, Burnham’s only mandate is we have to vote Burnham to ditch the despised Starmer!
June 21, 2026
I think it should be a massive wake up call to anyone who isn’t left wing and doesn’t want 8 years of labour govt, possibly with some sort of leftist coalition after the election, which could be even worse. If Burnham has any guts he will call a general election in short order – he probably ought to do so anyway constitutionally if he wants a significant policy departure from the Starmer election and govt. His best chance of winning will be in the early months, as would have been true for brown who took over and also wanted to move the Labour Party leftwards.
Those politicians who don’t want to see this happen need to plan accordingly. A circular firing squad on the right will ensure another leftwing victory. Be prepared also for burnham to seek further to gerrymander the electoral system as labour are already doing by giving children the vote, in order to entrench leftism permanently.
June 21, 2026
Reform have positioned themselves too much to the right. It’s true this is a cohort that turns out to vote, just like the left but they are more numerous and will vote tactically to keep out Reform. Unlike the right, the left aren’t above manipulating postal votes.
The alternative we seek is a sensible centre ground party. The Conservatives ought to be that, but they left office having governed poorly, with too much emphasis on courting left wing voters. Many of them couldn’t muster belief in the country by fawning over the EU. The real challenge is to get the centre ground vote out, as these are the people who roll their eyes at politics and politicians and decide not to turn out.
My concern for Reform is to get voting numbers their rhetoric sounds too much like the BNP.
June 21, 2026
I must say Lord Redwood that what you write above concurs with my own concerns about Reform and lay out why I spoiled my paper at the last election rather than vote for any party. Unfortunately democracy means that, mostly, parties appeal to the majority whose interests and need for support and handouts don’t align with my needs.
That Reform can still poll so well just shows what a massive problem immigration is for all but those in power. It might be an idea to take real notice. Too many in the Conservative party disagree with this so those Reform voters won’t be returning.
Finally, I don’t feel you would have got 304 votes to leave the EU if UKIP had not moved the Overton window.
June 21, 2026
It would appear was not selected to be on the Ballot Paper, but was appointed by the Gang Bosses. The election although seemingly local was about appointing the next Prime Minister someone to lead and run the Country. 44 million voters disenfranchised!
The Media rumour mill is suggesting we are about to see a coronation of a new leader. Again, no selection, no vote. The result will be a new manifesto no vote.
That is a UK Parliament grooming corruption from within. A UK Parliament constructing ‘rule’ and rules without democracy.
June 21, 2026
Speaking on TV today
Business Secretary Peter Kyle said he isn’t “delusional” about what is happening and said Labour must “govern through whatever unfolds” in the coming days.
My reading of his words “Labour must govern” – the delusional bit is that the UK Parliament still has it in their psyche that the people of this once great nation are not included
June 21, 2026
“The same [voting Labour to remove the PM] was true for some Conservative voters.”
Perhaps. But I think it more likely that since most of the 4379 people who still voted Conservative in the 2024 GE (23.4% points drop) and hence were happy with the Conservative policies of pro EU, pro Net Zero and pro mass immigration voted Labour in the by-election to keep out Reform and continue with these policies . Just as we see with the Lib Dem and Green voters who clearly also voted Labour to keep out Reform.
June 21, 2026
I don’t trust Reform. They are a bit like the over-flashy heart-breaker / bad boy / player Wickham in Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice. As opposed to the less flashy but more trustworthy and gentlemanly Darcy (even though Darcy has his problems) where Darcy is like the Tory Party.
June 21, 2026
So you want all voters to read Pride & Prejudice, reflect on the characterisation etc prior to going to the polling booth?
June 21, 2026
And the Lib Dems are like the wet Mr Collins in Pride and Prejudice
(no equivalent of Labour in Pride and Prejdudice, but Mansfield Park was very much written in response to the French Revolution which Jane Austen hated and Labour are very much in that spirit – trying to screw the rich with taxes and high immigration).
I love Jane Austen. All you have to do is judge how she would judge things in politics (for she was way smarter / more wise / represents the best of Conservative-like British values better than 99.99% of politicians – even though she was a writer).
June 21, 2026
Bad as Kier Starmer is (he does not seem to be able to grasp numbers/figures and what they actually mean) there is really no point in replacing the leader, if the same polices are going to be continued.
I see it is reported that HMRC received a massive increase in tax receipts last year, given Labour have also borrowed £ Billions more, it just goes to show the huge waste and inefficiency of the Governments chosen programmes.
June 21, 2026
94 ‘illegal immigrants’ invaded the UK yesterday 19th June 2026 …
June 21, 2026
Off topic
John could you touch on how Blair changed the political constitution to a legal constitution between 1997-2010
How is this affecting our governance today and what you think needs to change ?
June 21, 2026
At the last election Reform were far from ready to be a party of government. No worked out policies with outline drafts of legislation to implement them. Very little practical experience of the Civil Service and quangocrats. They appealed mainly to voters disgruntled with the Tories, and had no real pitch to attract Labour voters. Had they been ready they might have brought in those votes and swept to power.
After the election they changed tune, bringing in those Labour voters with unaffordable promises of nationalisation and giveaways. On some polls they would have commanded over 400 seats. They did manage to break the back of Labour support which was a valuable service. We now see splits in the Left, with Greens reformulated to attract block migrant voting.
However, as they started to try to prepare for possible government they withdrew some of those unaffordable offers, but have yet to assemble a coherent policy pitch and team to deliver it. That’s hard given where the opposition really lies in the administration. The main political parties have all been hollowed out, with few genuinely competent people as PPCs/MPs and too much emphasis on lobby fodder.