Farage claims safety fears stopping him from meeting constituents in person

Nigel Farage has revealed that he is not holding in-person surgeries for constituents because of fears for his safety.

In a series of interviews ahead of Reform UK’s annual conference in Birmingham, which starts on Friday, the MP said that he was yet to host any “old-style” meetings in his Clacton seat amid concerns people could “flow through the door with their knives in their pockets”.

In a speech on Friday afternoon, Richard Tice, Reform’s deputy leader, is expected to denounce net zero as an “extremist cult”, with Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, as its “zealot in chief”.

On Thursday, Mr Farage claimed he had been advised by the Speaker’s Office not to hold the surgeries in person, but this was denied by parliamentary sources.

Mr Farage is facing questions over whether he is fulfilling his duties as an MP, having spent time in the US supporting Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

During a phone-in on LBC on Thursday, he was asked whether he had an office in his constituency and how many surgeries he had held there since he was elected more than two months ago.

“Do I have an office in Clacton? Yes. Am I allowing the public to flow through the door with their knives in their pockets? No, no I’m not,” he replied.

Mr Farage clarified that he was “not yet” hosting surgeries in person, but that he would “when Parliament allows me”. For now, he said people could speak to him on Zoom.

On whether he had been advised for his own security not to host the meetings, he replied: “I would have thought that would make sense, wouldn’t you?”

He said that the guidance had been given by the Speaker’s Office, adding: “Beneath the Speaker’s Office, there is a security team who give advice and say you should do some things and not do others.”

“So we’re not in a fit state to do the old-style surgeries,” he said.

However, parliamentary authorities are understood to have no recollection of giving any such instruction.

Sources said that neither the Speaker’s Office nor Parliament’s security team would have advised any MP not to hold a surgery because this would interfere with their democratic duties.

Instead, they said that they may offer security advice on measures to keep members safe.

It comes as Reform gathers for its two-day annual conference in central Birmingham, where members will celebrate finally getting a foothold in Parliament with five MPs and nearly four million votes.

The party is hoping to overtake the Tories at the next election to become the official opposition, with Mr Farage having said he plans to challenge to be prime minister in 2029.

In an interview with the Telegraph Politics Newsletter on the eve of the conference, Zia Yusuf, Reform’s chairman, insisted that his party could win the next national vote.

The 37-year-old entrepreneur, who was appointed by Mr Farage in July, also vowed to lift the grammar school ban, warning existing education policies mean social mobility is “under assault” in Britain.

It is currently against the law to open new grammar schools, although the existing 163 grammars – attended by more than 175,000 pupils – are allowed to expand.

Conference marks coming of age of Reform

“A society grows very ill, many bad things happen in a society, if there is a lack of social mobility,” he said.

“That’s incredibly important, and it’s a really important part of this country’s history that is under threat now – frankly, it’s under assault.”

“I went to a selective school, my parents were certainly not wealthy at all. And so I certainly think that that was an important thing for me.”

Rishi Sunak appeared to signal his support for bringing back grammar schools during his Tory leadership campaign in the summer of 2022, but his team later clarified he only wanted to expand existing institutions.

Criticising the net zero target, which Reform has pledged to scrap, Mr Tice will say: “Other major nations with oil and gas treasure are extracting it as fast as they can, according to market conditions.

“They are laughing at our naive stupidity which is nothing short of gross negligence on our part and impoverishing our economy.”

Another major theme of the conference will be constitutional reform, with Mr Farage having announced on Thursday he was “relinquishing” his shares in a bid to democratise the party.

He declared in a video posted on X, formerly Twitter: “I’ve now made a decision. I no longer need to control this party. I’m going to let go.

“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.

“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.”