Nigel Farage has delivered an insight into how he envisions Reform UK’s set-up in the years to come.
Speaking to GB News’s Political Editor Christopher Hope, he said many figures in the party’s top brass “won’t all be MPs or prospective MPs”.
The insurgent party has already demonstrated this by having Zia Yusuf as its chairman until his dramatic resignation in June.
Farage spoke at a Central London venue to unveil Reform UK’s bid to get tough on crime alongside his newest MP Sarah Pochin.
GB NEWS
|Farage was asked whether Sarah Pochin will be his new Shadow Home Secretary
He was asked by Christopher whether Pochin’s appearance indicates her potential future role in the party.
“As far as our new girl Sarah is concerned, she is not yet Shadow Home Secretary, but we are watching her very closely”, he said.
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“Let’s see where we are. Ask me that question in a few months’ time. It’s a perfectly reasonable question but the next general election is some way away.
“I know that I need to provide a team of people across many areas. They won’t all be MPs or prospective MPs.
GB NEWS
|Farage gave Christopher Hope an insight into how he views Reform UK's composition
“I’m a great believer that we can bring people into senior ministerial roles from outside of politics, especially outside of career politics, and they can be held to account by committees or the House of Lords or wherever it may be.
“I think we have to get rid of the idea that you become a minister responsible for an area and then in a couple of years, you get moved on when you have probably barely got your feet under the table or even understand the subject.
“The argument for bringing in genuine expertise from outside is very strong, and it’s something we will be doing.”
He then turned to Pochin and jokingly said that his comments “don’t threaten her position”.
Farage made the remarks during a speech in London in which he vowed to cut crime in half.
He declared his party to be the “toughest party on law and order this country has ever seen”.
The Reform leader pledged to recruit 30,000 new police officers; end early release for prisoners convicted of serious violent, sexual or knife offences; and deport 10,400 offenders currently in British jails.
“We will cut crime in half”, he declared.
GB NEWS | Sarah Pochin won her seat in dramatic fashion at the Runcorn and Helsby by-electioon in May
“We will take back control of our streets, we will take back control of our courts and prisons.”
Farage has already set out a series of policies that are likely to have hefty cost implications, but he insists measures like scrapping net zero will mitigate this.
Overall, crime has generally fallen over the past decade, but rose last year driven mainly by sharp increases in fraud and theft.
Dame Diana Johnson, the policing minister, said: “If Nigel Farage was serious about making our streets safer, he should have backed the tough new laws we introduced earlier this year.
“It’s shameful that Reform constantly seeks to undermine confidence in our police and criminal justice system and voted to try to block measures to crack down on knife crime, anti-social behaviour, shop theft, child sexual abuse, and long overdue action to tackle the scourge of violence against women and girls.
“They should focus more on practical solutions to support our police, combat crime, deliver justice for victims of crime, rather than chasing headlines, spouting slogans and trying to divide communities.”