Your support helps us to tell the story
As your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.
Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn’t have the resources to challenge those in power.
Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November election
Andrew Feinberg
White House Correspondent
The Reform UK merchandise stand at their Birmingham conference is offering a wide range of items for sale – from ties signed by Richard Tice to caps emblazoned with “Let’s Save Britain”.
The caps – that were manufactured in China – are on sale for £20.
T-shirts, manufactured in Bangladesh and emblazoned with with the Reform UK logo, are on sale for £15, while beanie hats can be purchased for £20.
Bright blue ties, hand signed by Mr Tice, could be purchased for £35.
One excited merchandise vendor, who is Reform UK member himself, told The Independent that the MP for Boston and Skegness signed nearly one hundred of them in the lead up to the conference, which is the largest the party has held so far.
By 1pm, just three hours after the two day conference opened, the ties were sold out.
For £10, Reform members can purchase tote bags with the party’s blue logo on the side.
The party is selling car bumper stickers, emblazoned with the party’s logo and a ‘Let’s Save Britain’ banner, as well as badges, pens, stickers, beer mats and blue rosettes.
Also on offer, for £25, is a ticket for this evening’s Reform UK gala – which the party has described as a “night of fun and celebration”.
Reform UK, which now has nearly 80,000 members, has said this year’s conference has sold four times as many tickets as last year.
The conference, taking place in Birmingham, “marks the coming of age” of the party, Nigel Farage said.
Its five MPs will each address the conference stage, leading up to a keynote speech by Mr Farage at 4pm which will see him issue a “clarion call for change”.
The party branded the event “the most exciting of all the political conferences this year”, mocking its mainstream rivals for “festival gratuities” and hosting “lobbyists all offering gifts”.
A preview released on Thursday said: “You have already had the vapid ‘It’s a knockout’ shambles of the Lib Dems in Brighton.
“Next week you will have the Labour festival gratuities and gradgrinds, surrounded by lobbyists all offering gifts.
“And then, oh the pity, the extended funeral rites of a Tory party, lost in its own navel, casting public lots to chose its own pallbearers.”
