Nigel Farage will use a press conference on Thursday to name Angus MacIntyre as what Reform UK is calling its shadow armed forces minister. MacIntyre is an RAF wing commander whose service runs to about 40 years. The title is political, not parliamentary. Reform does not form the opposition. The job is to give the party a uniformed voice on defence while the Commons is on a mini-recess until Tuesday.
The timing is awkward for the man making the announcement. On the eve of the US midterms Farage said he did not go with the consensus that Donald Trump was going to be smashed. Democrats now hold both houses of Congress. JD Vance has blamed the Iran war for the Republican defeat. Reporters in the room will have a straight question, and a second one that Farage has been pressing himself: his claim that Britain would have to adopt the euro if it ever reapplied to join the European Union. Michel Barnier answered that claim this morning, and not in Farage's favour.
A defence brief while the government is elsewhere
Andy Burnham is back from the Commonwealth summit in Antigua. The diary in Westminster is thin. The Bank of England decides on interest rates at noon, and Emma Reynolds answers for the Treasury. Reform's conference is the set-piece opposition event of the morning. A wing commander gives Farage a figure who can talk about recruitment, kit and the Iran war without being a sitting MP. It also lets him change the subject from a forecast that did not survive election night.
What Reform Is Announcing
- Angus MacIntyre, an RAF wing commander, becomes the party's armed forces spokesperson.
- Reform describes the role as a shadow armed forces minister.
- His military career is put at about 40 years.
- The Commons does not sit again until Tuesday.
- Farage's pre-midterms line was that Trump would not be smashed. Democrats hold both houses.
The euro claim still sits on the table
Farage's European argument is simpler than the treaties. He says a returning Britain would have to take the single currency. People who have negotiated with Brussels do not treat that as a serious reading. Six of the 27 member states do not use the euro. Denmark has a formal opt-out. Barnier's line, given while Burnham is home from CHOGM and the slavery dialogue is now written into the communique, is that the currency can be fudged and free movement cannot. That is a harder political fact for any party that wants both closer trade and a closed labour market.
MacIntyre's name will lead Reform's release. The questions that follow are about a lost American night, and about whether the party's Europe policy can survive a former chief negotiator saying the euro is not the price. The Bank's decision at noon will take the rest of the day's attention. Farage has the morning.