Nigel Farage's Reform UK is on a mission to win over businesses before the next election, and this week's party conference in Birmingham could determine the party's political future, write Maurício Alencar and Ali Lyon.

By the time Britain's executives arrive at the Reform UK party conference this week, many will already be well-acquainted with the party's key figures. Over a months-long programme of City breakfasts and West End dinners, senior spokespeople have sought to persuade investors and industrial leaders alike of the merits of their radical plans for government. The drive — which, according to one party source, has at times involved three senior figures dining at different Square Mile eateries on a single morning — has been well received by attendees and marks a significant step change from the rough-and-ready approach of Reform's start-up culture of old.

"Their engagement has been very good," one attendee told City AM. "The feedback has been positive."

Courting business chiefs with luxury bites in the capital is nothing new. Tony Blair's New Labour operation famously launched what became known as its 'prawn cocktail offensive' to neutralise the Conservatives' 'New Labour, New Danger' messaging, and Rachel Reeves mirrored that courtship a quarter of a century later in what was dubbed her 'smoked salmon offensive'. Farage's insurgent movement, formed out of the ashes of the Brexit Party in 2021, has opted to treat executives from the worlds of finance, energy and tech to surprisingly continental fare: pastries, cold meats and fruit.

The series of industry breakfasts has, say lobbyists, been just one part of a major overhaul of Reform's external affairs operation.

On Thursday, the fruits of that push will come to a head at the party's Birmingham gathering, where business — and its interests — will sit at the heart of the conference agenda for the first time. The party faithful will rub shoulders with a coterie of industry body chiefs and, in a marked departure from previous gatherings, hear from blue-chip firms as diverse as Google, Cadent Gas and Panmure Liberum.

Last year's gathering intentionally looked more like a Donald Trump rally than a traditional conference, devoid of a formal fringe event agenda that, one observer said, lent it a "decidedly amateur" feel. Since then, the party has rolled out one of the most intense engagement programmes of any major party, according to lobbyists, issuing weekly updates on plans and events and showing signs of some "really deep policy thinking".

"Business interest in Reform UK has sharpened since the last party conference, with a shift towards engaging directly rather than taking a 'wait and see' approach," Fraser Raleigh, managing director at SEC Newgate, told City AM. "At the same time Reform has been encouraging that engagement and strengthening its policy and external affairs teams."

Following established parties

Labour, the Conservatives and the Lib Dems have all hosted Business Days at their party conferences for years, and Reform's move to follow suit is something of a necessity, sources have suggested. The party continues to lead most polls even after a 'Burnham bounce'. It controls 14 more councils and has become the second largest party in both the Welsh and Scottish parliaments. Its small business policy platform now covers everything from scrapping GDPR to protecting family firms.

Cheaper tickets have also helped lure more executives up the M40. A two-day commercial pass to the Reform conference, including access to a lounge where drinks will be hosted by Farage, costs about £780. By comparison, Labour is charging industry chiefs about £2,425 for full access to its conference, while the Conservatives are charging standard commercial guests £1,485, rising to £3,500 for those attending their Business Day.

As a result, Reform has doubled the number of commercial ticket sales from last year, City AM has learned. A separate dinner with key Reform figures in the main conference hall has been sold out for over a month. The party says it is investing heavily in the banquet, where attendees will enjoy a three-course meal while being serenaded by a military veterans band.

The demographic of attending business chiefs has consequently gone up a notch. Last year, business representation largely comprised agency lobbyists dispatched on factfinding missions; this year, executives from the companies themselves are coming to engage with top Reform figures.

"They clearly do want to get business on board," said the head of government affairs at one FTSE 100 firm. "That is something that they see as important, and the conference is a big part of that. There are a few big companies circling around it."

Conversations with 'adults in the room'

For all the improved relations, however, business's newfound interest is not without reservations.

In recent months, the party's prickly home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf has launched a string of ad hominem attacks on companies over their attitudes to immigration. Serco found itself on the receiving end of stinging criticism over deportations policy, issuing a statement that pushed back at Yusuf's accusation that it was taking "political positions" on deportation and saying instead that it would expect to continue delivering services on detention and deportations in the future.

The biggest clashes, though, came between Yusuf and Vodafone and Deliveroo. The senior Reform politician said he was prepared to send the telecoms firm's chief executive, Margherita Della Valle, to prison after the party claimed thousands of its Sim cards were distributed to asylum seekers under a charity programme. The broadside was particularly awkward because Vodafone had already agreed to put on panel events at the Reform conference before it became the target of Yusuf's online attacks, according to two people familiar with the matter. The FTSE 100 telecoms giant is still scheduled to host a panel on fibre networks and "getting the UK AI ready" on Business Day.

City AM understands senior representatives from Deliveroo will also be in attendance, even after Yusuf unveiled his 'Deliveroo Law' aimed at cracking down on illegal migrants working for the delivery platform. Both firms declined to comment.

Disagreements between top party figures and bosses — not only Yusuf, but also Robert Jenrick, who warned that business's cosy relationship with Whitehall could amount to "crony capitalism" — have made engagement more important. Industry chiefs want to get their views across to Reform before potentially damaging policies are formed. Some of the most senior officials at UK Finance, the industry body that stands strongly against a higher banking tax backed by Farage, are also attending the conference.

Reform sources welcomed more company and industry representatives turning up, allowing for dialogue that shows there are "adults in the room". But another industry source admitted there remains a "high degree of reticence" in dealing with the party. As one long-time City worker explained, his juniors and co-workers were not overly excited about seeing him pictured at a meeting with Tice because it made it look like the business had endorsed the party. Backlash from Ipswich Town fans also forced the club's chief executive to apologise for "harm and distress" after Farage used Portman Road as a backdrop for a promotional video. Of the so-called 'B5' industry groups — the five major UK business federations that meet government collectively — just one organisation is sending its most senior official.

Cooling on crypto

Part of the stubborn reluctance may also stem from being caught in a whirlwind of media scrutiny over Nigel Farage and Reform's dealings with crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne and the gambler George Cottrell, a convicted fraudster. Questions over a £5m donation by Harborne before the 2024 election are not going away, and a parliamentary standards investigation is set to loom over the Reform conference.

A distinctive aspect of this year's conference is the absence of any events or sponsors relating to crypto and digital currencies. Last year, crypto financiers and companies were offered a string of perks, including free tickets and access to Reform figures. Crypto payments firm Zebec was one of the flagship sponsors 12 months ago, while the founder of blockchain-based lending firm Aave Labs interviewed Yusuf. Freebies are no longer on offer, sources told City AM, and there are no scheduled panel events or sponsorships relating to digital currencies.

A source involved in discussions with the party said there was a "concerted effort" to dial down digital assets at the conference, and one party source noted heightened interest from other parts of the private sector this year regardless. By design or default, Reform's associations with crypto are slipping — though critics will likely argue that Farage's crypto dealings will remain a sticking point for the party for several more months.

It is in the next 12 months of business relationship-building that Farage and his team will be keen to assert their lead over Labour and the Conservatives. The Reform UK leader publicly predicted that an election could be called in 2027 — the last possible date for a general election falls in August 2027 — and party officials have privately pushed industry leaders to ramp up engagement on that basis. One industry figure told City AM they believed accelerating engagement would help pre-empt shocks and surprises in a manifesto, stopping any controversial pledges from being "thrown back in their faces".

Reform is generally optimistic about its chances of being crowned the pro-business party of record before the next election — credentials Labour enjoyed before Reeves' first Budget ruptured those relations. A spokesman said a "surge in sponsorships and record industry turnout" shows how far Reform has come, and one official said ties were "fundamentally changing quite rapidly".

Rapid is indeed the word businesses use to describe the engagement shake-up. So eager are Reform figures to win bosses over that the party of Lee Anderson — a former miner who regularly posts a video of himself patting a bacon sandwich — has even been willing to offer menus that some of its own MPs would usually balk at.

"The breakfasts and dinners have been a huge step forward," one executive heading to Birmingham concluded, adding: "They're even offering vegan options."