Reform UK is a 'wrecking ball' to kickstart 'exciting chapter' in UK politics, says crossbench peer

Lady Fox, 65, said Reform was the vehicle increasing numbers of Britons wanted to use to engineer real change away from the established political parties because "nothing's working".

She told GB News' Chopper's Political Podcast: "People will say it's a wrecking ball. Hopefully it'll be a wrecking ball that you can build something from.

"And I think that in that sense, Reform's rise in the polls is an exciting new chapter in politics. The 20th century, the long 20th century, is sort of over - we're into a new era of politics.

"There are populist revolts all around the world. And they aren't necessarily clear ideologically, but they do embody what democracy is really all about.

"One of the things that I've learned from being in Parliament in the last five years is that democracies are skating on thin ice.

"Too many things are handed over to the centre. There's too many pieces of legislation. You just sort of say, 'it's all right. Trust the ministers. There's Henry VIII powers.

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"There's all sorts of things like that. They [the political class] would do anything rather than face the electorate. That's why they like the ECHR [European Convention of Human Rights]."

Lady Fox drew a line from the decision by Britons to leave the European Union - and the powers it gave to elected politicians in the UK - to the support for Reform today.

She said: "Labour and Tories basically have done everything to ring fence off decision making from the attention or the accountability to ordinary people.

"And that's what being in the EU is all about. But it didn't end when we left the EU. And so they carry on.

"So I really think that democracy needs an injection of energy. And the people who can do that are the Demos. That's what happens. And they're the ones who are propelling Reform forward."

Polls are putting Reform ahead of Labour and Plaid Cymru ahead of the Welsh Assembly elections in May next year.

She said: "I'm from Wales, and the idea that the Senedd is going to fall to Reform is exciting. ... People want to have their say. They want to be treated with respect.

"They want to be listened to. It doesn't mean that you have to go along with everything they say, but what you don't do is to sort of sneer at people.

"That's what the State does all the time, and the one thing that any new party, whichever it is that breaks through, needs to be able to do is to see that they are the servants of the masters and the masters of the people, ordinary people."

Listen or watch Chopper's Political Podcast on GB News YouTube channel or wherever you get your podcasts