Sawt Falasteen - Nigel Farage's hard-right Reform UK scent victory at annual meet

Farage -- who rebranded his Brexit Party as Reform in 2021 -- was to address his handful of MPs, local elected officials and members at the start of the two-day event in the central English city of Birmingham.

Although the next general election is not due until 2029, Reform's wins in May local elections and its lead in most polls over the last six months has a growing number of people eyeing Farage as prime minister-in-waiting.

"The government machine needs shaking up and needs radical reform, and this party will do it," party member Philippa Franklin, 61, told AFP.

The 61-year-old former Conservative member and voter is convinced Farage, a longtime ally of US President Donald Trump, is destined for Downing Street.

"He's articulate, he's clever. He drinks, so what? He smokes, so what? He's one of us, isn't he?"

The mood was bolstered Thursday after Nadine Dorries, a minister in the previous Tory government, defected to Reform, declaring her former party "dead".

And Reform was certain to revel in the news of more upheaval for the embattled Labour government of Keir Starmer, amid Friday's resignation of the deputy prime minister Angela Rayner for not paying enough property tax on a new apartment she bought.

In a welcome message penned to conference attendees, Farage insisted Reform "has all the momentum".

That includes trebling its membership to nearly 240,000, winning five parliamentary seats -- though one MP has since been expelled from Reform's ranks over harassment claims -- and seizing control of 12 local authorities across England.

- 'Positive' -

Thousands of delegates flocked into Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre as guest speakers took to the main stage with Trump-style razzmatazz amid flashing lights and a beats-laden soundtrack.

The party's adopted turquoise colour was ubiquitous around the venue, while some attendees sport Trump-esque "Make Britain Great Again" caps.

"There is a very, very good, positive feel about what's going on at the moment," said former Tory councillor Roger Weaver, 76, from Essex, southeast England.

Kings College London political scientist Anand Menon told AFP "it's a big conference for Reform".

Could Farage be prime minister? "It's a very long way away, but it's certainly possible," Menon said.

But he noted potential Reform voters "are slightly worried about the lack of competence" and stressed the party must show it can "run a professional conference".

With Reform ascendant, hundreds of businesses are at the conference, with big-name firms including Heathrow Airport and JCB paying for a presence.

Former party spokesman Gawain Towler told AFP the expected corporate turnout shows it is "no longer the pariah it once was".

Two high-profile former Tory Cabinet ministers, Michael Gove and Jacob Rees-Mogg, are also both listed on the agenda.

- Immigration focus -

Farage will address the conference twice, with his "leader's address" brought forward to 1:00 pm (1200 GMT) Friday ahead of a mystery "special guest".

He will conclude the gathering with "closing remarks" Saturday.

Farage, 61, an ex-commodities trader, has been ever-present in UK politics over recent decades, but previously as a fringe Eurosceptic rabble-rouser.

A European parliamentarian from 1999 until the 2016 Brexit vote triggered Britain's departure from the bloc four years later, Farage has since transformed himself into an agenda-setting hard-right figurehead.

Winning election to parliament -– at the eighth attempt -- in July 2024, he has seized on the divisive issue of immigration to bolster Reform's fortunes.

After 14 years of Conservative rule, during which both legal and irregular immigration reached record highs, his Trump-style message of mass deportations and ditching human rights treaties appears to resonate.

Farage was in the Oval Office Wednesday after appearing at Congress to decry alleged curbs on free speech in Britain under Labour, posing for a picture with the American president.

Menon noted some peril in that strategy, arguing he "doesn't want to associate himself too closely" with Trump, who is "very unpopular" in Britain.

C.Hamad--SF-PST