How old is Reform UK?

At the time of writing, Reform UK has won four seats in the 2024 general election and a 14% share of the vote. And over the last few hours we’ve seen a number of different claims about how old—or how new—the party is.

David Bull, Reform UK’s deputy leader, said on the BBC’s election coverage last night: “We’re four years old, we’re an insurgent party, this has come out of nowhere." 

Some on social media have suggested the party is much younger than that however, with posts on X and Facebook apparently claiming that it is at most six weeks old.

In fact, the party officially changed its name to Reform UK about three and a half years ago in January 2021, and prior to that was called the Brexit Party. The Brexit Party was incorporated in November 2018 and registered with the Electoral Commission in February 2019. 

Reform UK had no MPs until March 2024, when Lee Anderson, a former deputy chairman of the Conservative party, defected to it after having the whip suspended.

When the 2024 general election was called, the current Reform UK leader Nigel Farage initially said he would not be standing. But on 3 June he announced he would be taking over from Richard Tice as the party’s leader and running in Clacton in Essex, a seat he has now won. Mr Farage becoming leader was followed by a surge in the polls for Reform UK, which may be the cause of some of the confusion around how long the party has existed. 

Prior to taking the reins back at Reform UK, and before that leading the Brexit Party, Mr Farage was the leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP).

UKIP was founded in 1993 to campaign for Britain's exit from the European Union and in 1999 won three seats in the European Parliamentary elections. Mr Farage was leader from 2006 to 2009 and again from 2010 to 2016.