Nigel Farage, leader of the Reform Party in the UK, has cited Preston Manning’s Canadian Reform Party as a template for his movement in Britain. Speaking at his party’s annual conference in Birmingham on Friday, Farage praised Manning, who led Canada’s Reform Party in the 1990s and helped reshape the country’s conservative movement.Manning addressed Reform UK supporters both in a prerecorded interview and on stage, where he described his party’s evolution from a grassroots Western Canadian movement in the late 1980s to a national political force. He told the audience that he was “flattered” to be viewed as an inspiration by Farage and noted the global rise of “bottom-up democratic populism.”.Farage, who has long admired Manning’s political record, said his own party borrowed not only its strategy but also its name from the Canadian example. “Reform in Canada was transformational,” he told supporters, adding that it had “put Canada back on the right track.”Reform UK is currently polling ahead of both the governing Labour Party and the Conservatives, despite holding only four seats in Parliament. According to Sir John Curtice, a polling expert at the University of Strathclyde, the party is averaging 31% support. He said that under the UK’s first-past-the-post system, this level of backing could potentially deliver a parliamentary majority if an election were held now.Analysts attribute the party’s rise to public concerns about immigration, economic pressures, strains on the health system and declining trust in the major parties. Farage has positioned Reform UK as a socially conservative alternative, advocating tougher policies on immigration and crime..Manning’s advice to Reform UK members included maintaining party unity and limiting public displays of internal divisions. His remarks come as the party continues to manage controversies involving suspended candidates and disputes among MPs.Canada’s Reform Party achieved a breakthrough in the 1993 federal election and became the official opposition in 1997. It later merged with the Progressive Conservatives to form the modern Conservative Party of Canada, led initially by former Reform MP Stephen Harper, who went on to serve as prime minister.Farage, who has maintained ties with former U.S. president Donald Trump, emphasized that Reform UK aims to replicate the disruptive role Canada’s Reform Party played three decades ago in reshaping its country’s political landscape.
