The rise of James Orr — JD Vance's 'British sherpa' and Reform's 'posh-bosh' charmer

It is hard to miss James Orr — with his slicked-back mane of blond hair, booming voice and all the confidence of a Wykehamist and an Oxford Balliol graduate, he could easily play the quintessential stage Englishman in a stage adaptation of Agatha Christie. A hybrid of academic and ideologue, he may yet turn out to be one of the most influential behind-the scenes voices in establishing a UK version of American Christian conservatism, allied to the rise of Reform UK.

- BY ANNE McELVOY

A buddy - intellectually and nowadays a family friend - of JD Vance and the ultraConservative thinker, Jordan Peterson, he hosts what he jokes is a "Conservative kibbutz", holding seminars and entertaining students and visitors in the rambling gardens and dacha of his property on the Cam in Cambridge, where he's an associate professor of religion. When I interviewed him about his role as Vance's "British Sherpa" (the fiery US vice president had spent his previous summer holiday with Orr and his vicar wife Helen), he was a bit of a quiet discovery - not many people, outside a countercultural part of Cambridge life, knew him. He proudly showed me a snap taken from Trump's aeroplane by one of his students who had worked on the President's reelection campaign.

That obscurity has changed since he emerged as the high priest of Reform's intellectual wing - and go-to academic on the new Right. At a Westminster awards ceremony a few weeks ago, at which the Reform message was that the "outsider" party was out to destroy both Labour and the Tories, a sliver of unease ran through the SW1 crowd at the party's tendency to tell everyone else how hopeless they are. Orr broke the nervy silence, shouting out a schoolboyloud "hurrah" for every Reform gong.