Saying Reform UK are "just the same old Conservatives" may not be the smart line some think

Reform reveal their new branding…. It’s clear: Nigel Farage’s Reform is just the same old Conservatives that ruined the country in the first place.

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— Liberal Democrats (@libdems.org.uk) 16 January 2026 at 14:19

BlueSky's hive mind has decided that branding Reform UK as "Conservatives 2.0" or something similar is a winning strategy, but I'm not so sure.

Perhaps because people who comment on such things online tend to be middle class and tend to be in the South of England - there's no real evidence for it, but it's scientific fact - the idea that Reform's voters are all drawn from the disaffected working class and backed Labour until recently has gained near-universal currency. These are people, the hive mind believes, who live up North somewhere among closed shipyards and whippets.

But as I pointed out in an article for Liberator last year, Reform swept the Tory shires in last May's local elections, and you don't do that on working-class Labour votes.

Telling these ex-Tory, newly converted Reform voters that their new party is "just like the Tories" is more likely to reassure them than alarm them. If we want them to think again, it would be better to emphasise how extreme Reform is and paint it as unpatriotic because of its dislike of British institutions like the NHS and the BBC, and its enthusiasm for Trump and Putin.

I think this is the "hopeful nostalgia" Josh Barbarinde was talking about the other day.

You could argue that Reform splitting the Tory vote will help more left-wing parties, but encouraging people to vote for far-right parties because you think it will help you in the short terms is a fool's game.

What I do like in the message from Lib Dem High Command above is "webuyanytory.com".

There is a tendency among politicos on Bluesky to announce that it doesn't matter how may Tory politicians join Reform or how disreputable they are, because most voters aren't even aware of it.

This view, too, is touched with snobbery. It may take the public a while to notice such things, but they do notice them, and once they've done so, it's hard to get them to unnotice them. It's also open to other parties to seek to speed this process, of course.

So let's stop calling Reform "Conservatives 2.0" and continue pointing out their extreme views and that they've recruited the very worst Tories.

Josh Babarinde is interviewed by Nick Robinson

Last week Josh Babarinde was interviewed by Nick Robinson for his Political Thinking series. The blurb for this edition runs:

The Lib Dem Justice Spokesperson managed to persuade ministers to change domestic abuse law within a year of being elected to parliament.

Josh Babarinde tells Nick how his own childhood experience spurred him on to push for reform.

He also explains how a beer mat persuaded him to join the Liberal Democrats.

You can listen to the interview on the BBC website.

At one point Robinson asks Josh why the Liberal Democrats don't have as much impact on the news as Reform UK does. This betrays such a lack of self-awareness on Robinson's part that you can probably see it from space.

It's no wonder that Max Wilkinson, the Lib Dem spokesperson on Culture, Media and Sport, has written to Ofsted to complain about the "undue prominence" the BBC gives Reform UK.

Josh Babarinde makes progress with his campaign for a separate domestic abuse offence

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The Guardian has slapped an "Exclusive" label on its report that Josh Babarinde has called for a specific defence of domestic violence to be introduced.

This is a bad case of overselling, given that he appeared on Good Morning on 10 December to talk about the idea.

But there are encouraging developments in the report. Josh says he has received support from both Labour and Conservative MPs, and its claims that:

Officials are examining whether to change the way domestic violence crimes are recorded after a campaign by an MP who says the lack of a specific offence allows abusers to be freed early from jail.

The quote from a Ministry of Justice spokesperson at the end is less definite than this:

"Domestic abuse comes in many forms, not just physical. Under the current system, domestic abusers already face longer sentences as it is considered an aggravating factor in sentencing for a wide range of offences. However, the independent review of sentencing, led by David Gauke, has been tasked with looking at how best to address crimes of violence against women and girls in future."

The other day I heard David Blunkett quoted as saying this government has "hit the ground reviewing," but let's hope something good comes of this one.

Josh spoked movingly to the Guardian about his own childhood, saying he recalls violence as creating a "really lonely" home life: 

"I would be upstairs in my room hearing an argument unfold, voices raised, shouts, screams, things smashed, and I would pull my covers over me and just sit crying. I didn’t know if my mum was OK."

Josh Babarinde makes the case for his Domestic Abuse Bill

The Liberal Democrat MP for Eastbourne, Josh Babarinde was on Good Morning earlier today to talk about the Domestic Abuse Bill he is looking to pilot through the Commons.

As he explains in the video, there is currently no separate offence of domestic abuse. This means that abusers are convicted of something like actual bodily harm, with the result that they cannot be excluded from early-release schemes and the like.

With the new clarity a separate offence would bring, survivors of domestic abuse could be better protected.

A website has been set up to support the campaign for an offence of domestic abuse. It includes a petition you can sign.

The Joy of Six 1266

Peter Apps untangles the chain of cover-ups that led to the Grenfell Tower fire: "The report traces a long and unpleasant history of this with regard to cladding fires, and it is clear reading it that the lack of honesty came at a fatal cost to those who lived in Grenfell Tower. What is worse is that it continued even after the fire destroyed much of the building."

Josh Self finds that the rise of Robert Jenrick reveals a cunning, ruthless operator.

"There is a growing sense that the future of work might not unfold in our favour. People are expected to work longer, for less, with less security and fewer protections. Rather than making work easier or more rewarding, we expect the development and application of new technologies, particularly in the areas of automation, computation and artificial intelligence, to disempower us." Craig Gent says research into logistics and the gig economy shows workers are tracked, instructed and managed by a dystopian world of algorithms.

"Babarinde grew up quickly, becoming a father figure to his five younger half-siblings. 'I found myself helping them with homework, going to sports days, Christmas plays, parents’ evenings, to hear about how they were doing, to go and cheer them on.'" Harriet Symonds profiles the new Liberal Democrat MP for Eastbourne.

Samantha Rayner takes us through the reasons why bookshops are bucking the decline of the high street: "In a time when people seek out 'destination; experiences, bookshops are getting savvier about not just being a gateway to a myriad of worlds and perspectives, but also becoming spaces that are aesthetically rewarding to visit."

Patrick Comerford visits the East End to search for echoes of the Siege of Sidney Street in 1911.

Eastbourne: Sun Trap of the South (1966)

 

The town's newly elected Liberal Democrat MP Josh Babarinde never misses a chance to repeat his claim that Eastbourne is the sunniest town in the UK.

So it's a shame that Talking Pictures TV is showing the short film Eastbourne: Sun Trap of the South from 1966 at 4.40 tomorrow morning - an hour when, Lord Bonkers maintains, all new MPs should be in bed.

The film will probably be available afterwards on the channel's catch-up service TPTV Encore. But in case it's not, I am posting Sun Trap of the South here for Josh and everyone else to enjoy.

Hear Josh Babarinde and Roz Savage talk about becoming a parliamentary candidate on The Rundown podcast

The latest edition of The Rundown podcast from Politics Home looks at candidate selection and features two Liberal Democrats.

They are Josh Babarinde, who will fight Eastbourne for us at the next election, and Roz Savage, who will fight South Cotswolds.

Also taking part are a Conservative candidate and the veteran political journalist Michael Crick, who keeps a close eye on the subject.

Lib Dems say sewage is coming up on the doorstep

It's the issue that's sweeping the country, says the Guardian:

Josh Babarinde, a Lib Dem councillor in Eastbourne who is also the candidate for the Conservative-held parliamentary seat, a key target for the party, says sewage is raised spontaneously as often as the NHS during local door knocking. "It is one of the most common issues that comes up on the doorstep. Beaches are the lifeblood of this town."

Over to Ed Davey:

"It’s much bigger than potholes. Potholes are a very serious issue, and they do move votes, but for sewage, the reason why it’s so dramatic is it brings the pollution of our natural environment and the damage that it’s doing to our rivers and our seas, and wildlife and plants and animals, to human health."

And an unnamed Liberal Democrat official says:

"When we started talking about sewage two years ago, the other parties though it was a bit weird. But now they all want to talk about it."

My photo shows the giant poo that Water Aid brought to the New York Millennium Development Goals Summit in 2010. In those days we saw sanitation as an issue for other, poorer countries.

If sewage does come up on the doorstep, don't forget to point for the camera.

Josh Babarinde tipped to be the Lib Dems' first black MP

The Voice profiles Josh Babarinde, saying there is a "high chance" that he will capture Eastbourne at the next election and become the first black MP elected as a Liberal Democrat:

Babarinde, who has a Nigerian father, took an unconventional route into politics. As a volunteer youth worker in east London, he sought to turn around the lives of gang members by offering them a business opportunity fixing mobile phones.

He explains: "I would go on to estates at stupid-O’clock at night. I would go wear a big black coat, and inside it there’s all this phone repair paraphernalia. So I was going into stairwells where lads were smoking weed at night, and would say 'you can make cash from fixing phones, I can show you how, I can give you a demonstration right now.' 

“And some of them thought I was an undercover police officer, or thought 'who is this dude, just rocking up on my estate?' But there’d be some who would give me the time of day, so I got some of them signed up."

His social enterprise, Cracked It, won contracts from several local authorities, and he won the prestigious Forbes 30 Under 30, recognising the leading entrepreneurs in Britain.