Reform UK is on the rise. Leader Nigel Farage hopes the Trump playbook can propel him to power

LONDON (AP) — The political pitch sounded familiar: The country is in crisis. The government must slash immigration, crack down on crime, ditch green energy targets and reopen factories to “make Britain great again.”

The words of Nigel Farage to his Reform UK party’s two-day annual convention that ended Saturday echoed themes that propelled U.S. President Donald Trump back to the White House.

Farage, the veteran hard-right politician, hopes a similar strategy can make him prime minister – a once-unthinkable idea that allies and opponents alike are taking seriously.

“If an election were held now, Reform would be the largest party by far, albeit probably short of an overall majority,” John Curtice, professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, wrote on the BBC website. “The question hanging over the party is — can they sustain this?”

Farage played a major role in taking the U.K. out of the European Union in 2020, but has never held political power. He has led a succession of small, fractious parties and only became a lawmaker in 2024 after seven failed attempts to get elected to Parliament.

Reform U.K. has just four lawmakers out of 650 in the House of Commons and got about 14% of the vote in last year’s national election. But for months it has led opinion polls, ahead of the center-left governing Labour Party and the main opposition Conservatives, which Reform aims to replace as Britain’s major party on the political right.

“Our country is in a very bad place,” Farage told delegates at the convention in Birmingham, central England. “We are the last chance the country has got to get this country back on track.”

Founded in 2018 as the Brexit Party, Reform now claims to have 240,000 members. In May, it won control of a dozen local authorities in England with Trump-like promises like “a DOGE for every county,” inspired by Elon Musk’s controversial spending-slashing agency.

Farage made the most of Parliament’s summer recess, when many politicians go on vacation, by holding regular news conferences to announce headline-grabbing policies like a plan to deport everyone who arrives in Britain without authorization.

He has capitalized on — critics say stoked — concerns about migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats, which he has called an invasion. He welcomed protests outside hotels housing asylum-seekers over the summer, some of which turned violent.

Opponents say Farage has demonized migrants and fueled misinformation. Last year, he inaccurately suggested police were withholding information about a stabbing rampage at a dance class that left three children dead. False claims that the attacker was an asylum-seeker sparked days of rioting across England.

Reform’s success in May’s local elections has brought responsibilities that will test the party’s competence, popularity and unity.

In his closing conference speech, Farage implored members: “Can we please exercise discipline and air our disagreements between each other in private?"

Some of the positions he shares with Trump, such as opposition to net-zero climate goals, are unpopular in Britain. Past praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin could also be a disadvantage in a country where most people back Ukraine in its war against Moscow’s invasion.

Farage’s depiction of Britain as a crime-ridden dystopia “in societal breakdown” has also met with skepticism.

In Washington on Wednesday, Farage testified to the House Judiciary Committee about what he called the “awful authoritarian situation” and lack of free speech in the U.K., citing the arrest of TV comedy writer Graham Linehan for tweets attacking transgender people and the jailing of Lucy Connolly, a woman who was sentenced to 31 months in prison for a social media post urging people to burn down hotels full of asylum-seekers.

“At what point did we become North Korea?” Farage asked rhetorically. Connolly, who was imprisoned after pleading guilty to inciting racial hatred, was a featured speaker at Reform's conference.

Farage was welcomed by Republicans on the committee, but was excoriated by Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin as a “Putin-loving free speech impostor and Trump sycophant.” In London, Prime Minister Keir Starmer noted Farage’s absence from the House of Commons, saying that he had “flown to America to badmouth and talk down our country.”

Both Conservatives and Labour are struggling to respond to Reform’s rise. Starmer has been criticized for not confronting the party more strongly, instead seeming to agree with some of its talking points about immigration. In a May speech, Starmer said Britain risked becoming an “ island of strangers,” a phrase that some felt echoed Conservative politician Enoch Powell’s notorious 1968 speech predicting “rivers of blood” as a result of mass immigration.

Starmer later said he regretted using the phrase.

Political scientist Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte, who studied reaction to the speech, said Labour is “legitimizing the immigration debate” in a way that plays into Reform’s hands and alienates its own supporters.

“Anti-immigration voters are not convinced by the turn, whereas pro-immigration voters are, and they’re the ones who become really upset about it,” said Turnbull-Dugarte, an associate professor at the University of Southampton.

The media also comes in for criticism for amplifying Farage. The Green Party, which has the same number of lawmakers, receives a fraction of the attention. Reform is far ahead in opinion polls, however.

The government does not have to call an election until 2029, and a lot can happen in four years.

Farage said Friday that amid instability in Starmer’s government, “there is every chance now of a general election happening in 2027, and we must be ready for that moment.”

A member of the party shows his hat signed by Nigel Farage during the Reform party's annual conference at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, England, Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025.(AP Photo/Thomas Krych)

Britain's Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage holds a tie during the Reform party's annual conference at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, England, Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025.(AP Photo/Thomas Krych)

British Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage speaks during the party's annual conference at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, England, Friday Sept. 5, 2025. (Jacob King/PA Wire/PA via AP)

Britain's Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage speaks during the party's annual conference at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, England, Friday Sept. 5, 2025. (Jacob King/PA via AP)

A member of the party shows his hat signed by Nigel Farage during the Reform party's annual conference at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, England, Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025.(AP Photo/Thomas Krych)

Britain's Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage arrives for the Reform party's annual conference at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, England, Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025.(AP Photo/Thomas Krych)

The Cincinnati Bengals acquired three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence from the New York Giants for the 10th pick in the upcoming NFL draft.

The teams announced the deal Sunday after agreeing to it Saturday night pending a physical.

Cincinnati then signed Lawrence to an extension that pays him an average of $28 million through the 2028 NFL season, according to a person familiar with the situation. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The Giants now have the fifth and 10th picks for the draft that begins Thursday night. They’re heading into their first draft under coach John Harbaugh after finishing 4-13 last season.

The Bengals paid a hefty price for the 28-year-old Lawrence, who asked for a trade because he wanted a new contract. He was set to make roughly $20 million each of the next two seasons and is now under contract for three more.

“I know they gave up a lot for me, and I appreciate that. I don’t take that for granted. I have a fire in me,” Lawrence said Sunday at Paycor Stadium, according to the Bengals' website.

Barring a trade, it’ll be the first time Cincinnati doesn’t have a first-round pick since 1989, when the Bengals traded the next-to-last pick in the draft (No. 27) to Atlanta for a second-round pick (No. 35), a fourth (No. 89) and a 10th (No. 256).

The 6-foot-4, 340-pound Lawrence had a career-high nine sacks in 2024 but only registered a half-sack last season. He made the Pro Bowl in 2022-24 and was a second-team Associated Press All-Pro in 2022 and 2023.

The Bengals ranked near the bottom in several defensive categories last season. They were 31st in yards allowed, 30th in points allowed and 30th against the run.

With Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins leading a dynamic offense, improving the defense was a must this offseason. Lawrence gives Cincinnati a proven star in the middle of the defensive line, though the cost was steep.

The Giants will be the 22nd team in the common draft era (since 1967) to have two top-10 picks and the fifth in the last five years. They did it in 2022 with Kayvon Thibodeaux (fifth) and Evan Neal (seventh). The Bears took Caleb Williams first and Rome Odunze ninth in 2024. The Texans selected C.J. Stroud second and Will Anderson Jr. third in 2023. The Jets got Sauce Gardner fourth and Garrett Wilson 10th in 2022.

On Tuesday, Giants general manager Joe Schoen said the team was having productive talks with Lawrence’s camp.

“We’d like for Dexter to be here, and at some point we’ll come to a resolution here, whatever that may be,” Schoen said. “We’ll see. But conversations have been really good, they’ve been productive and we’ll see what happens here down the road.”

But owning two top-10 picks was too good to pass up.

AP Pro Football Writer Josh Dubow and AP Sports Writer Joe Reedy contributed to this report.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL

FILE - New York Giants defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence II (97) walks off the field after an NFL football game against the Dallas Cowboys, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger, File)