Farage’s ‘People’s Army’ marches on with momentum – but could internal discipline prove to be its toughest battle yet?

NIGEL Farage declared his party the “People’s Army” as he warned members to keep their disputes private if they wanted to have a shot at power.

Reform UK’s leader used his closing speech at their conference in Birmingham to tell the party faithful to “exercise discipline”.

Nigel Farage with Lucy Connolly at the Reform conference in Birmingham[/caption]

Connolly, imprisoned for a tweet during the Southport riots, and Farage embrace[/caption]

Farage said: ‘You are the People’s Army. And to succeed, it needs one thing: Discipline’[/caption]

He said: “My big message at the end of this conference, as we head towards those massive elections in Wales, in Scotland, in London, in the Midlands, and elsewhere next year, is that you are the People’s Army. And to succeed, it needs one thing: Discipline.

“Can we please exercise discipline and air our disagreements between each other in private and not in public? And if we do that, we will succeed.”

It comes after public spats with MP Rupert Lowe, who was accused of threatening Reform’s then-chairman Zia Yusuf. Mr Lowe, now an independent MP, denied the claims.

Hundreds of activists jumped to their feet when Mr Farage asked who wanted to run at the local elections. He cheered: “This is the People’s Army in operation.”

Deputy leader Richard Tice looked like a man auditioning to be Chancellor as he promised to get the economy “motoring again”.

In a dig at Rachel Reeves he said: “You won’t see a Reform Chancellor crying on the front benches.”

And he promised to slim down the public sector with fat jabs.

He said: “Maybe should we apply a bit of the old Wegovy to slim down the civil service? A touch of the old Mounjaro to reduce the size of the quangos and, last but not least, a bit of the Ozempic to reduce the bloated welfare state?”

Earlier in the day, Lucy Connolly was welcomed to the main stage with a standing ovation.

The 42-year-old mum was jailed for 31 months for stirring up racial hatred against asylum seekers online after last year’s Southport murders.

The former childminder, freed last month having served 40 per cent of her sentence, said she would love to work with Reform to overhaul the criminal justice system.

She said: “I’d really love to use my experience to work with, hopefully, Reform in the future and overhaul the prison system, especially the women’s estate.

“It doesn’t work. It’s a waste of all of our money. We could let 80 per cent of the women population out of prison and none of us would be in any danger.

“They need housing, they need mental health, they need rehab, and they just need people to care.”

Connolly, whose husband is a Tory councillor, also revealed that she voted Reform at the last election, adding: “It didn’t go down too well in our house.”

Reform members voted to abolish Ed Miliband’s Net Zero department. And a motion passed calling for a review of asylum approvals by Labour and Conservative governments.

As soon as you have the ability to detain and deport, you’ll stop it in two weeks

Nigel Farage

Meanwhile, Mr Farage clarified his flagship conference pledge to stop the boats “within two weeks” of winning the election.

He said it would be two weeks after passing legislation — which he hoped to do as quickly as possible.

Mr Farage told the BBC: “As soon as you have the ability to detain and deport, you’ll stop it in two weeks.”

Reform would introduce laws like former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott did more than a decade ago to stop arrivals from Indonesia.

Mr Farage said they would tow dinghies back to France as an “absolute last resort”. And women arriving by small boat would be deported to Afghanistan “if necessary”.

MP Lee Anderson, former deputy chairman of the Tory Party, was announced as welfare spokesman. He will lead Reform’s plan to crack down on the bloated benefits bill.

Sir Keir Starmer lost his deputy Angela Rayner over her tax scandal[/caption]

Top Tory Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg and daughter in attendance[/caption]

The ex-coal miner spoke about working for the Citizens Advice Bureau, saying: “I saw real poverty, I saw real desperation but I also saw some people who should have been going to work. To be honest I don’t always blame the people. I was lucky, I lived in a little terraced house with my mum and dad.

“We were the alarm clock generation. That taught me the value of hard work and family.”

Mr Farage said the party would scrap the two-child benefit cap only “for working couples on low pay”.

And MP Sarah Pochin promised that a Reform UK government would do away with “woke policing”.

Ex-Conservative minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, who was on a panel, revealed his daughter, Mary, had joined Reform. He said he was “having his arm twisted” by her but dismissed Tory fears that he might follow suit.

He said: “I’m going to remain a Tory because I think it is fundamental that we bring the family of the right together.”

Meanwhile, ex-Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik confirmed he had joined Reform and wanted to stand “wherever Nigel thinks is best”.

Reform’s two-day conference ended with party bigwigs on stage as former Tory MP Dame Andrea Jenkyns led the crowd in a rendition of the national anthem.

But Dame Andrea, Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire, sang “Queen” by accident during the first few lines of God Save the King.

On Friday, she had opened her own speech by singing a self-penned song called Insomniac.