Reform UK beset by internal row over response to Dover and Portsmouth protests

Nigel Farage said demonstrators in balaclavas were ‘horrible’, but others in the party defend them as ‘brave, passionate patriots’

Nigel Farage’s condemnation of the masked men whose blockade of Dover stole headlines on the final day of his party’s annual conference was swift, describing their actions as “horrible”.

Yet less than a week on from the public debut of the black-clad members of Patriot Platform , Reform is gripped with internal friction over the activists. There has been unease among some members and councillors about Farage’s criticism and some outright praise for the group as “patriots”.

Reform is facing questions about explicit links to the nationalist hard right after Ryan Bridge, a co-founder of the anti-migrant Raise the Colours group, was given a prominent platform at Reform’s conference, where Farage pledged to “legally back” him.

Bridge, who was on bail and was charged this week with 14 offences including racially aggravated harassment, has worked closely with the leader of Patriot Platform, Daniel Thomas. Bridge has said he has no association with Patriot Platform.

The starkest public example of Reform divisions over Patriot Platform played out publicly in Portsmouth on Monday after police had clashed with activists wearing balaclavas.

Thomas gatecrashed a visit by the party’s home affairs spokesperson, Zia Yusuf, to tell him that events had been misreported. “I take your word for it,” Yusuf told him. Yusuf later reflected that Thomas – a convicted criminal and long-term associate of the activist who calls himself Tommy Robinson – made his points “respectfully” and challenged Kemi Badenoch’s condemnation of the group. “How dare you call them ‘thugs’,” Yusuf told the Conservative leader on X.

Yusuf and other senior Reform figures including Richard Tice, Robert Jenrick and the leader of the party’s flagship county council, Kent, have criticised the use of face coverings by the new far-right group. But often in the same breath there has been tacit backing for their aims.

“How about your government stops the boats instead? Then people wouldn’t feel the need to protest over the invasion of the country … just a thought,” said the Kent council leader, Linden Kemkaran, whose council includes Dover.

Yet elsewhere – as highlighted by the anti-fascist group Hope Not Hate – others have been willing to go further.

“Those patriots in Portsmouth have done more to stop the invasion than the last seven governments put together,” said the Dudley councillor Andrew Southall, while the Portsmouth councillor Emily Strudwick spoke of “a great sense of community” at the protest, which she attended.

There is also, unusually, evidence of open dissent in Reform towards Farage himself.

“We know there are strong feelings circulating today about Nigel’s comments regarding the Dover protest. We want to address it head on as a group,” the Tameside councillor Sharon Barker wrote on Facebook.

“Many of the people at that march were brave, passionate patriots who had very real reasons for covering their faces, including the very real fear of losing their jobs simply for standing up for Britain.”

Her group leader, Allan Hopwood, told the Guardian that the subject was “particularly emotive”, insisting the focus was on democratic politics. A factor in Tameside is that Reform locally is at the sharp end of the threat posed by the rightwing rival Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain.

But on the question of face coverings worn by the activists, Hopwood said: “These are people who clearly have a patriotic agenda and are concerned about the women and children of this country, but they are also acutely aware there will be media who want to propagandise things. They will have jobs they want to protect and unfortunately we’re in a position where people are reluctant to make their identities known.”

During the Reform conference, Farage told Bridge of Raise the Colours that its campaign – which put up flags around England in circumstances that many people saw as intimidating – had been “phenomenal” and he would pass the group’s proposal to partner with Reform-led councils on to the party’s lawyers, an exchange that has been shared widely on social media.

Bridge told the Guardian on Thursday that he had received a lot of interest from Reform councillors about his proposal and the party was considering the plans. “Specific councils are in acknowledgment of what we are trying to roll out and propose. It’s very, very positive from Clacton to Norfolk to Wales. Last night, I spoke to councillors in Burnley, it’s literally the whole country,” he said.

“It felt like we were in a comfortable, safe environment of like-minded British patriots and people that want better for the country,” he said.

The praise for Patriot Platform among some in Reform and ties to Raise the Colours come at a perilous moment for Farage as he seeks to nudge up Reform’s flatlining poll numbers by tempting wavering Tory voters.

While he is fond of laying claim to being the man who killed off the British National party when it was competing with Ukip a decade ago, Reform faces an acute electoral danger of losing voters on its right to Restore Britain.