Reform conference opens as poll numbers slide and donation row runs

Reform UK's party conference began today with Nigel Farage attempting to reverse a slide in the polls, the Independent reports. The BBC's Chris Mason writes that the party faces headwinds; the Mirror counts the headaches as multiple.

One flashpoint: the party's finance boss has been accused by the Mirror of talking nonsense over a claim that Boris Johnson was asked to stand against Farage in Clacton. Lee Anderson, the Reform MP, has backed a referendum on the death penalty despite Farage's opposition, according to the Sun. The Independent notes that Farage is loved by some but hated by more, a line that carries an electoral ceiling even his own party can now see.

Another £4 million has arrived from a crypto billionaire pardoned by Donald Trump, reported in three outlets. The Guardian separately notes the Green Party leader Zack Polanski will stand in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election - Keir Starmer's old seat - though that story belongs to a different cluster. The Reform conference story is about internal strain under external pressure: a party built on one man's franchise, now visibly calculating whether that remains an asset.

Reform entered Parliament two months ago with five seats. The test of a conference is whether the party that leaves is more coherent than the one that arrived. The next poll will answer that. Party conferences do not usually move numbers; when they do, it is rarely in the direction the organisers intended.