'Pessimist patriots': hard-right Reform UK widens appeal

Joanne Woodhouse and Henry Godwin live at opposite ends of England and used to sit on opposite sides of the political fence - until both decamped to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party.

- JOANNE Woodhouse and Henry Godwin

Woodhouse, a onetime Labour voter in northwest England, and Godwin, a former Tory (Conservative) based near London, were among those at the hard-right party's annual conference Saturday, as it celebrated its surging popularity.

The middle-aged pair appeared typical examples of anti-immigration Reform’s ability to draw disaffected voters from both its right-wing Conservative rival and centre-left Labour, as it builds on an unprecedented performance in local elections in May.

“I want to see a big change,” Woodhouse, an independent local elected official in Merseyside who joined Reform two months ago, said at the two-day event in Birmingham, central England.