{"id":130234,"date":"2025-09-09T02:57:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T02:57:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/130234\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T02:57:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T02:57:06","slug":"nigel-farage-hails-preston-manning-as-his-inspiration-as-reform-uk-surges-in-polls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/130234\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigel Farage hails Preston Manning as his \u2018inspiration,\u2019 as Reform UK surges in polls"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Britain’s Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage, left, shakes hands with Preston Manning as they share the stage during the party’s national conference at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, Britain, on Sept. 5.Isabel Infantes\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Right-wing populist leader Nigel Farage, whose Reform UK party is surging in the polls in Britain<\/a>, says he is modelling his strategy on that of Preston Manning, who led Canada\u2019s Reform Party to eclipse the federal Progressive Conservatives in the 1990s. <\/p>\n

Mr. Manning received a standing ovation after speaking to Reform UK\u2019s annual conference on Friday, where Mr. Farage paid tribute to him, saying the Canadian politician and onetime opposition leader had \u201cdestroyed\u201d the PCs, and is his \u201cinspiration.\u201d<\/p>\n

He told a packed conference hall in Birmingham that he had modelled his Reform UK party on the Canadian party, even adopting its name.<\/p>\n

Mr. Farage\u2019s right-wing populist party, which proposes a crackdown on immigration and crime, is leading both Britain\u2019s governing Labour Party and the Conservatives in the polls. Despite having only four MPs, it would be on course to form the next government if there were a general election tomorrow, political analysts say.<\/p>\n

Mr. Manning, who preceded Mr. Farage\u2019s speech onstage, was greeted by applause and whistles, after a prerecorded interview with him in Canada was shown to the packed auditorium of party supporters. He ended the clip by saying, \u201cNigel, I carried the torch for Reform in Canada, I now hand that torch over to you and wish you and your people every success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mounting the stage to a thumping rock soundtrack and strobe lights, the 83-year-old described how the Reform Party had grown from a grassroots movement from Western Canada in the late 1980s into a formidable federal political force in the nineties, challenging the traditional two-party system. <\/p>\n

Opinion: Keir Starmer risks losing Britain in his awkward dance with intolerance<\/a><\/p>\n

He said he was \u201cflattered\u201d by the suggestion he had inspired Mr. Farage, who has praised Mr. Manning in the past. The Canadian said there has been a shift to \u201cbottom-up democratic populism,\u201d including in Europe and the United States. <\/p>\n

Mr. Manning added that, in comparison to the charismatic Mr. Farage, he was depicted in the Canadian media as having \u201creverse charisma.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Farage earlier this month was photographed in the Oval Office with Donald Trump, and has been in contact with the Republican President and members of his team for years.<\/p>\n

But Mr. Manning offered some salutary advice to the Reform UK faithful, including focusing on a few messages and keeping internal divisions out of the public eye.<\/p>\n

He said one key to his party\u2019s success was \u201cdealing with our internal differences privately, rather than publicly.\u201d <\/p>\n

Despite its surge in popularity, Mr. Farage\u2019s party has been riven by internal problems and squabbles. Last year, the party suspended several candidates alleged to have made racist remarks. In July, MP James McMurdock left the party caucus while he is being investigated over allegations about his business conduct during the COVID pandemic. <\/p>\n

U.K. hard-right Reform party says it will mass deport migrants if it wins next election<\/a><\/p>\n

Former Reform MP Rupert Lowe was suspended in March after the party alleged he had made \u201cthreats of physical violence\u201d against then-chairman Zia Yusuf. Mr. Lowe did not face criminal charges over the claims, which he called \u201cfalse\u201d and the result of a \u201cbrutal smear campaign.\u201d He now sits as an independent.<\/p>\n

In Mr. Farage\u2019s tribute to Mr. Manning, which was repeatedly interrupted by hecklers, he said Reform in Canada \u201cwas transformational\u201d and had \u201cput Canada back on the right track.\u201d <\/p>\n

The success of Canada\u2019s Reform Party \u2013 from winning its first federal seat in 1989, to its breakthrough in the 1993 general election, and becoming the official opposition in 1997 \u2013 led to a realignment of the right in this country.<\/p>\n

It evolved into the Canadian Alliance, which later merged with the PCs to form the modern Conservative Party. Stephen Harper, a former Reform MP, became its first leader and then prime minister.<\/p>\n

Sir John Curtice, a politics professor at Strathclyde University in Scotland and a leading authority on polling and electoral politics in Britain, said Reform UK \u201cstands on average at 31 per cent in the polls, enough to put them 10 points [ahead] of the incumbent Labour government.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the first-past-the-post electoral system that could well be enough for the party to secure an overall majority if an election were held now,\u201d he said in an e-mail. <\/p>\n

He said Reform UK\u2019s rise in the polls is underpinned by pessimism about the British economy, concern about the level of immigration, dissatisfaction with the state of Britain\u2019s health service and waning confidence in the major parties\u2019 ability to address these challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are, in short, a socially conservative segment of the British public that feels let down by the Conservatives, are alienated from Labour, and who feel that their views are expressed and understood by Nigel Farage.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Britain’s Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage, left, shakes hands with Preston Manning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[49,48,75,1008,714,348],"class_list":{"0":"post-130234","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-pleasemod","12":"tag-politics","13":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}