Reform launches its own Research Department

Since returning to politics in May 2024, Nigel Farage has had one central goal: replacing the Conservatives as one of the two great parties of British politics. Having led in the polls since April, Reform UK has focused in recent weeks on the intellectual battle, by attracting bright thinkers on the centre-right. Danny Kruger MP defected last month, followed shortly by the academic James Orr. The former now heads the party’s ‘Preparing for Government’ unit; the latter is tasked with building the intellectual pipeline from the universities to a future Farage administration.

Today, the party has sought to lay down a fresh marker. Reform is launching its own Research Department – in the style of the Tories’ famed Conservative Research Department (CRD). Alumni of the latter include Enoch Powell, Reggie Maudling and Iain Macleod in the 1940s, Chris Patten in the 1970s and David Cameron and Andrew Lansley in the 1990s. In recent decades, the CRD has evolved somewhat from its original function of being a philosophical hothouse to now undertaking the daily tasks necessary to keep a major political party functioning. This is understood to be Reform’s goal, as the party seeks to go from being a start-up to an established political entity.

The new unit is expected to be a dozen-strong, with the first job advert going live today. The RRD is expected to provide ‘cutting-edge research, analysis and support’ to enable ‘rapid crisis management and robust scrutiny.’ Graduates, or those with equivalent qualifications, are specifically targeted with experience ‘within a political party, think tank, or research organisation’ highly sought. A senior party source said: ‘The building of the party machine continues at pace. After putting together the infrastructure required to win elections across the country, the Reform Research Department is the next step in Millbank Tower.’ Further hires are expected in the press team too.

As The Spectator has previously reported, artificial intelligence will be a feature of new hires’ work, with the party keen to trial novel forms of policy analysis. While much of the Research Department’s work will focus on day-to-day activities, longer term projects include Freedom of Information requests, investigations and opposition research – the famed ‘dark arts.’ In a particular irony to longtime Farage loyalists, the creation of the RRD is being aided by the advice of a former employee of Lynton Crosby who worked in Tory HQ’s anti-Ukip unit under David Cameron.