Reform UK is ramping up its war on the Tories and Labour, with 380 local branches in action and a target of 500 by New Year. The party’s on a recruitment spree, moving into bigger offices and beefing up its operations. They’ve already poached several former CCHQ staff…
One notable defector is Richard Murphy, ex-National Head of Field Campaigning at CCHQ, who’s had 30 years of working with the Conservative Party. The Tory veteran has now jumped ship to Reform. As have two former CCHQ campaign managers of two years, Michael Hadwen and Luigi Murton. One current CCHQ staffer told Guido, “good, they were useless anyway”. Ouch…
Reform Chairman Zia Yusuf tells Guido:
“Reform has all the momentum in British politics and is rapidly assembling a formidable ground campaign machine. Richard Murphy, formerly Head of Campaigning for the Conservative Party has terminated his Tory membership after 44 years to launch the Reform Candidate Centre of Excellence. He agrees with us that Reform will be the next party of government and will play an important role in making that happen. We have also hired two rising stars from CCHQ – Luigi Murton who has led campaigns overturning big Lib Dem majorities, and Michael Hadwen who ran a top 10 national campaign in Bassetlaw. Real change is coming to Britain.”
Meanwhile, Reform has compiled a list of Tory councillors who replied with a snarky response to their defection call-out. Those councils are now firmly in Reform’s crosshairs, with the party promising to focus their full firepower on them. All eyes on Reform’s press conference tomorrow, which promises a “special announcement”…
Burnham confirms he spoke to Trump last night about drilling in the North Sea:
“I indicated in the phone call that we had a week last Monday that I would take a pragmatic approach when it comes to the North Sea, and that is my intention as we go forward from here. There is a resource there. When people are struggling, we can’t ignore that. Hence, me indicating that to the president…”