10 signs the Tories and Reform had a terrible year - from Elon Musk to Partygate

Daily Mirror

14 hours ago

All eyes are on Labour's as it marks the end of a rocky first year in power but the Tories and Reform UK have had far from a smooth ride - here we take a look at their lowlights
All eyes are on Labour's as it marks the end of a rocky first year in power but the Tories and Reform UK have had far from a smooth ride.
This time last year, Rishi Sunak had just led the Tories to its worst election result in history.
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One Tory MP told me last month that the brazen former PM had still not apologised to her, or her colleagues, for calling an election in the summer, which saw many high-profile politicians lose their seats.
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She said anger was still rife towards him. When Parliament returned after the summer, the MP said Mr Sunak would walk around with a shield of his pals - like former deputy PM Oliver Dowden - to stop frustrated Tories interrogating him on why he led them to annihilation at the polls.
A year on and Kemi Badenoch has done little to turn around the sad state of the Tory party. Keir Starmer has repeatedly branded the Conservative Party irrelevant, describing it as a "dead party walking" that is 'sliding into the abyss'.
Meanwhile, Reform UK have been making big gains in the polls. But it has been far from a smooth ride for Nigel Farage - and as his party gains popularity, so too does the level of scrutiny that his councillors, MPs and himself come under.
His plans being compared to a Liz Truss-style unfunded nightmare and a spectacular row with and resignation of one of the five Reform UK MPs elected last year has done nothing to help Mr Farage's ambitions to professionalise his party.
Here we take a look at some of the rocky moments for the Tories and Reform UK since last year's 2024 election.
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Dire Tory leadership race... and conference
After Rishi Sunak resigned as PM, he carried on as a caretaker leader for the Tories for a painful few months while the Conservative leadership race dragged on.
Last Autumn's Tory party conference in Birmingham was a drawn out series of pitches at panel events from Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly, Tom Tugendhat and Robert Jenrick. Cringey merch was littered across the conference centre, including hats featuring a slogan about a sex act.
Kemi Badenoch, who went on to become leader, had an explosive time during the party conference. In the most memorable row, she was branded "hopelessly out of touch" after saying maternity pay is "excessive" and has "gone too far".
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Elsewhere during the conference she said between 5% and 10% of civil servants are "should-be-in-prison bad". This would mean between 25,000 and 50,000 were put behind bars. During the same month, she was mocked after claiming she became working class when she got a job in McDonalds.
Tories keep dropping in polls
Kemi Badenoch has ultimately struggled to make any progress at all in the Tories' standing in the polls. In fact, since the election, the Conservative Party's ratings have continued to fall - largely due to a rise in popularity for Reform UK.
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According to a YouGov poll last month, just 10% of the public believe Ms Badenoch looks like a prime minister in waiting, while 81% see the Tories as being in a weak state. It doesn't help that she got off to an extremely shaky start at PMQs, with scripted questions and gaffes galore.
And a mega-poll by YouGov was equally bad news for the Tories. It showed Reform would win the most seats if a general election happened now. The party would secure 271 MPs, while Labour's 411 would crumble to just 178 and the Tories would find themselves in fourth spot with 46 spots, behind the Lib Dems ' 81 seats.
Ms Badenoch's leadership has also been persistently undermined by Tory MP Robert Jenrick - who is in her Shadow Cabinet - and appears not to have realised the Tory leadership race is over. In February, it emerged his leadership campaign website, joinjenrick.com, was still live despite it being months after Ms Badenoch became Tory leader.
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Badenoch says Partygate was overblown
A day after becoming Tory leader, Ms Badenoch thought it would be a good idea to declare Boris Johnson a "great" Prime Minister and that the Partygate scandal was "overblown".
In her first major interview since winning the contest to replace Mr Sunak, Ms Badenoch suggested the problem instead was with the Covid fines. During his time in No10, Mr Johnson became the first sitting PM to be sanctioned by police after he was found to have breached his own Covid rules. Despite being among dozens who resigned from his government in July 2022, Ms Badenoch told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg she thought Mr Johnson was "a great Prime Minister".
She added that there were however some "serious issues", explaining: "Some of those things I think were perception issues, a lot of the stuff that happened around Partygate was not why I resigned. I thought that it was overblown. We should not have created fixed penalty notices, for example. That was us not going with our principles."
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She added that the public was "not wrong to be upset about Partygate", but said : "The problem was that we should not have criminalised everyday activities the way that we did."
Elon Musk turns on Nigel Farage
In an astonishing turn of events, tech billionaire Elon Musk - who was then a close pal of Donald Trump - turned on Nigel Farage in January, not long after the pair had met in the US.
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The Tesla and X owner dramatically called for Mr Farage to go in a huge embarrassment for the Reform UK leader. The billionaire claimed Mr Farage "doesn't have what it takes" and said the party needs a new person in charge.
The unexpected call for change came just hours after a fawning Mr Farage branded him a "hero" and said his support makes his party "look cool". Musk posted on Twitter /X: "The Reform Party needs a new leader. Farage doesn't have what it takes."
It followed weeks of cosying up together, with Mr Farage suggesting Musk could plough millions of pounds into his party. Musk suggested that then-Reform MP Rupert Lowe could be the best bet to succeed him.
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Kemi Badenoch hadn't met grooming gangs victims
When the grooming gangs scandal hit headlines again earlier this year, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch was vocal in the discussion. But it emerged she had never actually met any survivors of grooming gangs and had no current plans to meet with any victims, nor had any asked to meet with her.
At Prime Minister's Questions Keir Starmer, who had a private meeting with victims that morning, accused Ms Badenoch of "jumping on a bandwagon" - as she had failed to raise the issue in the Commons during her eight years as an MP. The Tories had strapped a wrecking amendment to Labour's Children's Safety bill, which would've taken it down entirely unless the government agreed to hold another national inquiry into grooming gangs.
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Ms Badenoch has since met with victims.
Tory MP refers himself to watchdog
In the latest Tory row, Tory MP George Freeman last week referred himself to the parliamentary watchdog following claims that he was paid by a company that helped him write questions to government departments.
The former Science Minister has referred himself to the standards commissioner after emails came to light suggesting that he had lobbied the government on behalf of the environmental monitoring company GHGSat.
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Kemi Badenoch has been accused of not being firm enough on the issue. The Lib Dems called on her to 'come out of hiding' and immediately suspend the whip from Mr Freeman after he referred himself to the parliamentary watchdog, and accused her of 'following in Boris Johnson's footsteps' by so far refusing to do so.
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper MP said: 'Kemi Badenoch's deafening silence over this scandal shows she is following in Boris Johnson's footsteps when it comes to leading the Conservative Party. Her refusal to take action should come as no shock from someone who thinks the partygate scandal was 'overblown'."
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Reform UK's explosive civil war
At last year's election, five Reform UK MPs were elected to Parliament. It didn't take long from five to go to four after a spectacular row between Rupert Lowe and Nigel Farage.
In March, Reform UK reported the Great Yarmouth MP to the Metropolitan Police in March over alleged threats of physical violence against the party's chairman Zia Yusuf. He was suspended from the right-wing party. In May, prosecutors decided no criminal charges would be brought.
The civil war appeared to begin after Mr Lowe branded Reform UK "a protest party led by the Messiah" and questioned whether Mr Farage would make a good Prime Minister in an interview with the Daily Mail. The party later then made the allegations about Mr Lowe's conduct to police.
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A very public row, with the pair slinging insults at each other, followed. Mr Lowe has since become an active critic of Reform UK and Mr Farage, with the axed MP this week launching his own party Restore Britain. Reform UK's total number MPs is now back up to five after Sarah Pochin won the Runcorn and Helsby by-election in May.
Reform UK chair quits - then un-quits
A bizarre row broke out in the top ranks of Reform UK in June, when party chairman Zia Yusuf quit and then un-quit his role. He dramatically resigned on social media just hours after criticising newly elected Reform MP Sarah Pochin for demanding a ban on the burka.
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Reform UK distanced itself from Ms Pochin's comments, confirming that a burka ban is "not party policy". Mr Yusuf waded in to say it was "dumb" for Ms Pochin to ask the question if it was not Reform policy, before quitting his position later that day.
But two days later Mr Yusuf said his decision was a "mistake" and would return to the party to lead the party's "Doge" team, which is inspired by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, to cut waste and sending in Reform-controlled councils.
The affair once again showed the unpredictability and individualist attitudes in the leadership of Reform UK.
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Reform compared to 'Liz Truss 2.0'
Reform UK has and will likely continue to struggle to gain true credibility as a political party. It is surging in the polls but many see it as a protest piece.
In May, Nigel Farage faced a backlash after setting out a raft of unfunded policies. Among them, the right-wing leader said his "biggest aspiration" was to lift the level at which people start paying tax to £20,000. The respected Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the party's pledge could cost between £50-£80 billion a year.
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Among Mr Farage's policies, the right-wing leader said his "biggest aspiration" was to lift the level at which people start paying tax to £20,000. He also committed to scrapping the two-child benefit limit, which Labour is examining as part of a child poverty strategy, restoring the winter fuel payments, and tax breaks for married couples. He claimed he'd be able to pay for the policies through scrapping net zero and diversity and inclusion programmes - but provided little detail.
In response, Keir Starmer deliverd a major speech warning Nigel Farage's "fantasy" economics would lead to a Liz Truss -style economic meltdown. The PM labelled the Reform UK leader "Liz Truss 2.0" as he addressed workers in the North West after Mr Farage used a speech this week to unveil "uncosted" policies - running into the tens of billions.
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Farage in US - never in Clacton. first holiday
Nigel Farage faced criticism in his first months as an MP after repeatedly jetting off to the US to support Donald Trump during the presidential campaign. The Mirror has documented many of his trips.
The latest row over Mr Farage being out the country was in May, when the MP was branded a "part time leader" after the Brexiteer politician skipping a crucial debate on Mr Starmer's EU deal. He was absent despite criticising the UK-EU reset agreement in the press, calling it a Brexit"surrender".
At the time, The Mirror asked him if his constituents deserved to be represented in a debate on the UK-EU deal, to which he said: "Where was the defence minister? Have you criticised him? "He was climbing Everest and we were doing a new defence pact with the EU. It was my first time away for three years."
He was referring to veterans minister Al Carns, who was raising cash for veterans' charities with a record-breaking climb of Mount Everest.