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It's not really new. It's Farage's old Brexit party, rebranded. It's an odd kind of political party, too, in that it has only three members (Richar "registered supporters" rather than members, and the registered supporters don't have any say over policy. This is in the hands of the three members and its honorary president, Nigel Farage (who doesn't himself seem to be a member).
I'm not sure what their long-term goal may be, other than providing a platform for radical right-wing policies and helping their members and supporters (and honorary president) gain high-paying gigs on GBTV (our internet version of Fox, only without the audience). They supposedly want to see proportional representation introduced, which Labour notionally favours but I don't see it happening under a Labour government, since it would almost inevitably lead to Labour splitting into two parties, one centre-left and one far-left.
They certainly command enough support to cost the Conservatives some seats -- how many is open to question, since it's certainly not safe to assume (as some on the right of the Conservative Party are trying to persuade their colleagues) that all Reform voters would otherwise vote Conserative. But, assuming the Conservatives lose the forthcoming election by a landslide at some point this year, as seems increasingly likely, it's hard to see that tacking still further to the right is going to win over enough Reform supporters to compensate for the move liberal Conservatives it would alienate.
There's an interesting op-ed here
He floats the idea that Farage might, if he decides to stand for Parliament for the eighth time, manage get himself elected as an MP at last. I'm not at all sure he'll take the risk -- it would mean giving up his lucrative contract with GBTV, at least until after the election, and Labour, if they win, are very likely to look at the rules about serving MPs taking jobs presenting TV shows, particularly on a partisan channel like GBTV. So that could cost him a lot of money if he won. And if he did, he'd find himself a very small fish in the Westminster pond, and probably be overwhelmed by the workload of an opposition MP for a very deprived constituency.
