Nigel Farage announces he is giving up control of Reform UK

Nigel Farage has announced he's stepping back from the helm of Reform UK, relinquishing his majority shareholder status and effectively handing over control to party members.

Reform UK, registered as a company unlike most political parties, operated under the name Brexit Party from 2018-2021.

Records at Companies House indicate Farage, alongside deputy leader Richard Tice, had significant command, with Farage possessing over half of the shares.

Farage declared in a video on X: "I've now made a decision. I no longer need to control this party. I'm going to let go."

He further outlined plans for restructuring the party, stating: "We will change the structure of the party from one limited by shares to a company limited by guarantee, and that means it's the members of Reform that will own this party."

Farage added confidently about surrendering his grip on the organization, "I am relinquishing control of the company, and indeed of the overall control of the party, it's now going to be the members, and that, I think, is the right thing, and it's the right thing because this conference marks the coming of age of Reform UK, and that's something that I'm very, very excited about."

Following an impressive haul of 14% of the votes in July's general election, Reform UK boasts five MPs in Parliament.

This move follows Farage's commitment to "professionalise" the party, aiming to transform it into the official opposition by 2029, after facing heavy scrutiny during the election campaign.

He revealed that when he set up Reform UK Limited, his financial ownership "led to much hilarity in the press", but was necessary for him to "make very fast decisions".

The Clacton MP 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."

Ben Habib, the former deputy leader of the party, posted a video to X where he claimed he had been advocating for the democratisation of the party behind the scenes "for many years".

He insisted he wasn't "having a go" at Mr Farage, but stated that "if a leader is going to act with integrity it's best he be held to account by the membership of his own party".

He said: "There's nothing like accountability and scrutiny and the knowledge that you will be removed as leader to drive you to behave with integrity, with purpose and fulfilling the promises that you've made to the people of the membership."

Mr Habib also claimed that Reform was planning a new constitution but this wouldn't allow the party members to remove Mr Farage as leader, only to call a vote of no confidence the company's board would have the final say.

He declared: "This is not democracy. This is not the ability of the membership to remove the leader. This is the technical ability of the membership to ask the board to please consider removing the leader."

He added with strong criticism: "The constitution itself is an awful document and could be picked apart in multiple different ways, but it certainly hasn't had the finest legal minds in the country working on it day and night.

"I could have drafted it, I would have done a better job drafting it, and it doesn't and this is obviously the critical point it doesn't deliver the ability to remove the leader."