Reform UK officials are hoping that the party's first-ever Business Day paid dividends at its conference. Maurício Alencar reports on a dramatic 72 hours in Birmingham and asks whether industry chiefs left satisfied with what they heard and saw.

Asked for an umbrella phrase to describe Reform's economic philosophy, policy guru Dr James Orr replied that the best term was "The New Right". Yet it is also, in parts, the "old right" reasserting itself, the Cambridge academic and JD Vance fan mused during a Thursday afternoon event. Not "hyper-Thatcherism", nor nationalism, but "patriotism" founded upon a "basic love of home". The New Right, he said, is a "recovery of what you might call the politics of hope" and "cultivating the first-person-plural – a sense of we".

That is not a straightforward message to deliver to industry chiefs paying hundreds of pounds to attend Reform's inaugural Business Day. It is even less clear whether The New Right remains Reform's guiding ideology after Orr left the party – during the conference itself – under a cloud of allegations.

Lobbyists have long struggled to make sense of the party's economic vision. One source recalled that a group of advisers was once asked to prepare a presentation for City investors with the essay question: "Explain the incoherence of Reform's economic policy". That difficulty matters for a party now polling strongly enough that financiers feel they cannot ignore it, even if they cannot easily pin down what it would do in office.

Jenrick's assurances on red tape and tax

Many financial services representatives at the conference were encouraged by what Robert Jenrick, the party's economic spokesman, had to say on red tape and tax. Banking delegates were especially keen to hear Jenrick's message for the City after Nigel Farage said at Davos this year that he would tax the banks because he didn't like them.

Although Jenrick did not completely rule out backing a higher tax on banks – and stressed there was no current commitment – sources insisted the party does not support tax hikes. More likely, the party will stick to its pledge to end the Bank of England's remuneration payments on commercial bank reserves, a policy that would relieve banks of a significant annual cost but has drawn criticism over its potential impact on monetary policy transmission.

Jenrick, a former City lawyer before entering politics, also teased an announcement for the financial and professional services sector covering deregulation of areas such as capital requirements and ring-fencing – the regime introduced after the 2008 financial crisis to separate retail banking operations from riskier investment activities. The party is additionally set to re-write the Britannia Card, its offer to wealthy foreign investors who have left the country. And Reform may not need to worry about banking taxes anyway: City sources say the odds are stacked against the party as Chancellor John Healey prepares to deliver the Budget.

Channel 4 News investigation alarms business chiefs

The courtship of business by Orr, Jenrick and the wider Reform team had been coming together until cracks began to tear open. As industry figures filed into a large hall for dinner with Farage and other senior party figures, Channel 4 News began broadcasting its headline-grabbing investigation. The sting operation, run by undercover activists, filmed Orr and Dan Jukes – known as Farage's closest aide – apparently arranging a foreign donation through a middle man, complete with boasts about how easy it was to get away with. Under UK electoral law, political donations from foreign sources are prohibited, and parties must verify that donors are permissible, which is why such allegations routinely attract regulatory scrutiny.

Farage held his nerve, joking about clashes with FTSE 250 executives including Vodafone and Serco, though one person at the dinner said he looked less energetic than usual. Behind closed doors, officials scrambled to manage the fallout. The next day it was announced that Orr and Jukes had been suspended pending an investigation, and party chairman Lee Anderson told broadcasters they would not return to the top of the party.

At a press conference intended to showcase Farage's deal with the French National Rally's Jordan Bardella to stop small boat crossings, the Reform leader instead had to bat away questions about the party's finances and the alleged conduct of two senior officials. He dismissed the recordings as "loose pub talk" and insisted Reform had not taken cash by illegal means.

Reform UK playing catch-up

The investigation left some party officials rattled. A Reform-linked source could not understand why Orr and Jukes would take such enormous risks over a proposed £35,000 donation, given the party had already boosted its reserves largely through donations from the crypto investors Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne. Another said the affair had not helped a party trying to assert its policies and build relationships with business figures who already feel queasy about handing money to Reform.

The episode has thrown into relief some of the paradoxes in Reform's agenda. Farage says the party is being unfairly attacked, yet he is prepared to admit some officials may have engaged in wrongdoing, pending an investigation. Jenrick says the party will deliver a budget within its first 100 days, yet contradictions remain in its approach to the wealthy and the vulnerable. Orr insists there is an intellectual philosophy behind Reform, but his newly assembled team of roughly a dozen policy wonks no longer has a boss to lead them. Reform has attacked Healey for not committing to a rise in defence spending, yet the party has no designated defence spokesman.

The stock defence has been that Reform is still growing, patching over blind spots and trying to become a more professional organisation. There were hopes that this year's much larger conference would present a party that looks the part, and many industry figures did speak positively about the event. However, organisers of some fringe events said their panels were moved to the main stage at short notice, while others complained about bureaucracy in booking Reform figures to speak – even after party representatives had personally agreed to take part in open discussions.

City chiefs still waiting for meetings

One senior industry group figure, who regularly speaks to government ministers and could become an important ally for Jenrick and Tice, was disappointed not to secure any meetings with Reform. The complaint was not an isolated one, and it points to the gap between how Reform's operators and the three mainstream parties – Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats – run their Business Days. The established parties have decades of institutional relationships with trade bodies and lobby groups, machinery Reform has yet to build.

There is still time, however, for engagement beyond the conference. Jenrick is set to embark on a pre-Budget "roadshow" across London and New York to meet finance bosses and talk up Reform's plans for fiscal rectitude.

Attention in Westminster and the City will then turn to the next round of polling, which will show whether the latest scandal has made any dent. The looming threat of Electoral Commission and Met Police investigations may also encourage business chiefs to adopt a wait-and-see approach.

Reform has remained top of the polls despite six months of intense scrutiny over donations and gifts. Should its lead over Andy Burnham's Labour hold for the next three months, a new wave of optimism is likely to sweep the party – both that Farage can survive the latest row and that he could become Prime Minister. Every political party carries contradictions in its ideas, but the City will want Reform to prove it is ready for government rather than simply promise that it is.

Source: City AM