Nigel Farage Threatens To Flood House Of Lords With Reform Peers To Deliver Policies
Nigel Farage at the Reform party's annual conference in Birmingham, September 2026 (AP Photo/Thomas Krych)
2 min read
Nigel Farage has threatened to flood the House of Lords with “hundreds” of Reform UK peers and sack civil servants if necessary to deliver his party’s manifesto.
The Reform leader used his keynote speech at Reform UK’s conference in Birmingham to address sceptics who doubt his party’s ability to deliver on its manifesto after a hypothetical general election win.
He declared that he would be prepared to appoint enough peers to the Lords that Reform would have a majority in the Upper Chamber, or hold a referendum on its composition, if the peers tried to block his party’s legislation.
“We will declare a national emergency. All recess of parliament will be cancelled. Parliament will sit, if necessary, for 24 hours a day, for six days a week, until we pass the necessary legislation,” Farage said.
Reform policies – including stopping the arrival of small boats to the UK, reducing university attendance and cutting taxes on workers and pensioners – would be “explicit”, he added.
“I expect the House of Lords to honour that, as they’ve done with the Salisbury Convention for over a century. But if they don’t, well, we’ll present them with an idea. It’s not a new one – it’s been used before.
“We’ll appoint hundreds of new peers so that we have a majority in the House of Lords. And if that proves difficult, we’ll hold a referendum on the current composition of the House of Lords and they would be swept away by the British public, appalled by them.”
He promised to “remove the ability of judges to lean on outdated conventions” to block policies and warned the Civil Service: “If they try to obstruct us, they’ll be removed from their posts and replaced with people from outside, from the world of business.”
Farage’s speech on Friday also addressed the allegations broadcast by Channel 4 that his party breached political donation rules, which led to two of Farage's closest allies stepping down this morning pending an internal investigation.
“Reform has broken no law. We take compliance extremely seriously. And ask yourself, why is all of this happening? Anyone got a clue why it’s happening? Because they’re scared of us. That’s why it’s happening,” Farage told Reform conference.
The speech was delayed over security concerns, with Farage telling the BBC the police would not allow him onto the conference stage due to a threat, and the address was interrupted by several protesters who were removed from the hall.
