Farage Prepares Reform UK for Government to Restore Britain's Greatness

By Elizabeth Piper and Andrew MacAskill

BIRMINGHAM, England (Reuters) -British populist leader Nigel Farage vowed on Friday to start preparing for government, saying the nation's two main parties were in meltdown and only his Reform UK could ease the anger and despair plaguing the country to "make Britain great again".

To a prolonged standing ovation by a crowd at the annual party conference, Farage for the first time offered a vision of how Britain would be under a Reform government: He pledged to end the arrival of illegal migrants in boats in two weeks, bring back "stop-and-search" policing and scrap net zero policies.

Despite having only four lawmakers in the 650-strong British parliament, Farage is becoming increasingly confident that his party - which was on the fringes for three years until last year - can beat both Labour and the Conservatives, taking the initiative on every issue from immigration to free speech.

Everything from the large crowds queuing to enter the two-day, sold-out conference in the English city of Birmingham, to the standing ovations and Farage chants underscored a new-found confidence in the party which, according to current opinion polls, is on course to take power at an election due in 2029.

Farage said British people frequently told him he was "the last chance we've got to get this country back on track", describing the nation as being abandoned by Labour and as being run by unqualified people "not fit for government".

Predicting that the resignation earlier in the day of Angela Rayner as deputy prime minister would split Labour, he said the next national election might come as soon as 2027, and that the party must be ready for government at any time.

"All I can do is promise that I will give this everything, I will give this absolutely everything that I've got," he said. "No one cares more about the state of this country than I do. I am determined to do something about it."

Unveiling a new defection to Reform from the Conservatives - former culture minister Nadine Dorries - Farage said he was setting up a department for the preparation of government and appointing ex-Reform chairman Zia Yusuf as head of policy.

'NEXT STEPS'

He said the move was part of "the next steps" - the banner of the conference - towards government, building on Reform victories at local elections earlier this year and the increasing professionalism of a party once better known for candidates making reported racist or offensive remarks.

Loved or loathed after being instrumental in winning the 2016 Brexit referendum to get Britain out of the European Union, Farage knows how to campaign and says by bolstering his team of officials, the party will be a fighting force well before 2029.

Farage has led the running against Britain's traditional two mainstream parties on immigration, unveiling - when Prime Minister Keir Starmer was on holiday - a plan to repeal human rights laws to allow for mass deportations of asylum seekers.

Despite analysts questioning the legality of those plans, they seemingly prodded the government into beefing up its own plans to tackle the high numbers of arrivals.

Farage has also orchestrated a debate about freedom of speech in Britain, criticising arrests of people for making comments on social media deemed to incite violence.

A friend of Donald Trump, Farage went to Washington this week to urge U.S. politicians to persuade Britain to put an end to what he called a North Korea-style clampdown on free speech, before visiting the U.S. leader in his Oval Office.

Starmer called out Farage for going to Washington to criticise Britain, calling this "unpatriotic".

Although in the ascendant, Reform UK has yet to command the high level of political donations the two main parties do, and it was not clear how many business representatives were attending the conference, although Farage promised to end what he called an "exodus" of the wealthy from Britain.

"I don't apologise for the breadth of our ambition because that is what this country needs," he said, before leaving the stage to blaring music and pyrotechnics.

"It needs hope, it needs belief, it needs to smile again, it needs to believe in who we are." ($1 = 0.7402 pounds)

(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper and Andrew MacAskill; editing by Mark Heinrich)