Nigel Farage’s Reform party offers £300 tours of parliament in apparent Commons rules breach

Reform UK supporters have been offered paid tours of parliament in an apparent breach of House of Commons rules, it has emerged.

Nigel Farage’s party has emailed some activists offering tours with an MP for up to £300 as part of a fundraising drive.

Rules for MPs explicitly forbid the offering of access in exchange for payment.

In 2020, Green Party former MP Caroline Lucas was found to have breached parliamentary rules by giving a tour of the Commons in exchange for a £150 contribution to a fundraising campaign.

She apologised for the “completely unintentional” breach and said the money had been returned.

After becoming aware of Reform’s apparent breach, the right-wing party is offering a refund to those who purchased the tickets.

A party spokesman said: “This event was set up without our knowledge by the local branch who did not know the rules.

“Ticket holders are being offered a refund. Reform UK takes the rules of parliament incredibly seriously.”

It came after a source told The Times a Reform branch had advertised a Christmas party for supporters at a central London bar and nightclub via email, with the optional extra of a tour around parliament with an MP.

The apparent breach of Commons rules is the latest sign of teething problems for the upstart party, which is currently undergoing an overhaul in a bid to formalise its political structure.

Mr Farage has given up his control of Reform, promising to place ownership of the party in the hands of members.

After July’s General election, where they received 14 per cent of the vote share, Reform now has five MPs in Parliament.

In an interview with The Independent, party chairman Zia Yusuf stressed that the planned overhaul was to ensure the party’s fitness for a long-term future, not just the next few months.

Reform faced frequent criticism over its election campaign for racist or xenophobic comments made on social media by candidates, after which Mr Farage vowed he would “professionalise” the party in a bid to become the official opposition in 2029.

He said that when he established Reform UK Limited his financial ownership “led to much hilarity in the press”, but was necessary so he could “make very fast decisions”.

The MP for Clacton added: “Secondly, and most importantly, the real reason was to prevent a small, nascent political party being taken over by malign actors, and that was my really big fear, but we’ve moved on.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/reform-uk-nigel-farage-parliament-tour-b2628696.html