Andy Burnham entered Number 10 last week with a promise to “make politics work better.”
The new Prime Minister has a clear view of the electoral threat posed by Reform UK, as do the Labour MPs who facilitated the speedy replacement of Keir Starmer. Up until recently Nigel Farage’s party appeared to have unshakeable momentum, topping the last 300-plus national opinion polls.
Farage now faces scrutiny into the generous personal contributions and other support he has received as well as an ungainly by-election battle which, in the absence of serious competition, has taken on farcical undertones.
Yet it would be ill-advised to write off Reform as a significant political force, and to underestimate either the public’s ability to overlook its leader’s real or perceived transgressions or their growing appetite for radical new policies.
Higher education reform
Wonkhe readers will be familiar with the broad thrust of Reform’s HE policies set out in their 2024 manifesto, which included pledges to restrict undergraduate numbers and bar international student dependants.
But those in higher education – and many other sectors – face significant unknowns in dealing with a party with little in the way of historic policy or traditional base. Off-the-cuff remarks and broad rhetoric has been offered in place of explicit plans. Formal announcements contain varying degrees of detail (and are rarely collated on the party’s website).
Over the last few months, we’ve been researching the underlying messages within Reform’s communications to help organisations sensibly plan ahead. We’ve built a corpus of data from Reform’s official policies, social media feeds, and outputs from its senior officials and politicians. We’ve used text mining and natural language processing techniques to draw insights, while also interviewing more than 20 journalists who have had regular contact with Reform politicians and officials.
With the party in outright control of 24 English local authorities, there is much to be learned by how Reform has conducted its business at a council level. Witness the way the Local Government Association was dismissed by the new leader of Newcastle-Under-Lyme council as a “cosy, self-serving establishment funded by hardworking taxpayers who see absolutely nothing in return” – he went on to proclaim the relatively small saving of £17,000 a year.
Feedback from our training sessions has indicated there are a great many people who are nervous about both Reform’s policies and political style. One member of university staff who attended a recent briefing talked to us about the challenge of “constant churn” within the party leadership locally, saying:
We have got ‘in the door’ by making our focus as hyper-local as theirs. We don’t focus on national level issues. We keep our focus solely on our city. We’ve picked things we know they care about, such as defence and apprenticeships. And we’ve studiously avoided ‘culture wars’ issues such as international students, net zero, or gendered toilets.
Much of what has been said by Reform politicians hasn’t yet surfaced as formal policy – but the party’s rhetoric clearly favours some courses and disciplines over others. In an interview in June 2024, Nigel Farage told ITV that he “wouldn’t charge anyone tuition fees at university if they were studying science, technology, engineering, medicine or maths.”
Their rhetoric has demonstrated a preference for apprenticeships, degree apprenticeships, or HE courses focused on the professions or applied sciences. Our analysis of Derbyshire County Council’s communications output, looking before and after Reform took charge in May 2025, showed a notable increase in the use of the phrase “advanced manufacturing” – a nod to the presence of employers like Bombardier and Rolls Royce in the region.
The two-year undergraduate course has also been a consistent talking point – most recently in this Times interview with Reforms’s 19-year-old council leader George Finch, who has said that the university system “has to be reformed.” As he put it:
Three years at uni. You can reduce that to two and streamline education. But, no, they like the jolly. They like to sit back and have a few drinks and party.
Research and ideology
When it comes to research, Reform has kept relatively silent on matters related to funding. References to technology and innovation in our corpus of texts was limited to specific fields such as defence, construction, cryptocurrency and blockchain.
For those universities that boast research strengths in net zero, there is also a clear presentational challenge. While the party’s leadership is openly hostile to net zero and subsidies, we’ve observed that at a local government level the approach and narrative is more nuanced. For example, in the North East of England several industries in Reform-controlled authorities are involved in wind-turbine manufacture and offshore power generation, meaning that local politicians need to tread carefully.
On energy more broadly, there do appear to be opportunities as well as threats for local relationships and partnerships. Our work so far has revealed that this is one of the few policy issues prominently talked about by Reform – with household bills and the petrol pump being key platforms.
The way for universities to talk about energy (and indeed other issues) with Reform politicians is likely to be around creating jobs, prosperity and saving money for the “hardworking taxpayer” (a phrase we see used repeatedly), rather than complex economic arguments about green levies and carbon price support tax.
On other ideological issues, many will look to the US as a powerful example of higher education being used as a proxy battleground. Institutions in England already face punitive fines as a result of the free speech complaints scheme administered by the Office for Students – and manifestos for this year’s devolved elections indicated that Reform would go even harder on free speech legislation.
Following the local elections in May 2025, we saw that an immediate priority for Reform-led councils was addressing “civic pride” and “DEI” matters, making changes to policies around flag flying, promoting singing of the national anthem, and attempting to amend diversity and inclusion policies.
How to respond
It’s clear that many Reform’s policies are still being formed. While there’s nervousness about what it might mean, there’s also ground to play for.
Through structured interviews with journalists, we have observed a number of key trends when it comes to engagement with Reform:
First, the ease of communication with politicians depended on the individual’s level of political experience. Many had little previous experience and faced a steep learning curve. Politicians who had previously held office as Conservatives were more likely to follow political norms/processes.
Next, we have seen that successful engagement often involves being ready to provide a baseline understanding of what your organisation does and how it contributes to the local area or economy. Relatedly, understanding the language, priorities and ideological position of new politicians will help your early dealings. In our analysis of outputs, the phrase “common sense” came through strongly as a core phrase – one to consider if seeking to consciously “mirror” Reform-speak as part of your engagement.
It has been noted how politicians have a “public face”, meaning that in some cases they were more likely to be fractious during PR stunts, council meetings or communications with members. In private meetings, there was evidence many were more willing to engage pragmatically.
Finally, be ready for friction, including in battles which you thought were long-won. It’s helpful to have your responses prepared if things get rough. If you can, test them out in advance.
The turquoise wave
Andy Burnham’s victory in the Makerfield by-election was a solid demonstration of how Labour can potentially defend traditional Red Wall seats against the so-called “turquoise wave”. It was a resounding win and convinced Labour MPs that the Greater Manchester mayor was best placed to lead the party and the country. But for the new Prime Minister, the main battles still lie ahead.
For all the difficulties that Reform faces, the possibility of Nigel Farage entering Number 10 or becoming the leader of the opposition must still seriously be countenanced.
More generally, the underlying trend for the UK electorates’ appetite for “disruptive” parties with radical or anti-establishment ideas remains. Higher education institutions and other sector organisations would be unwise to ignore the consistent strong polling for both Reform and the Greens, especially while it remains to be seen whether Burnham’s policies and personal brand will cut through at a national level.
