By Andrew MacAskill
LONDON (Reuters) -Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has appointed David Bull, a doctor and television presenter, as its new chairman who will have the job of trying to end the party’s infighting and turn it into a political force capable of winning a general election.
Reform, which has five members of parliament, has recently seen a surge in support in opinion polls, overtaking British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s governing Labour as Britain’s most popular political party.
Bull’s appointment comes after previous chairman Zia Yusuf abruptly quit the party last week after expressing frustration when a Reform lawmaker called for a ban on the burqa.
Yusuf returned days later in a new role, citing exhaustion for his earlier decision to quit.
Bull has previously served as deputy leader of Reform and stood unsuccessfully for election to parliament last year. He has spent more than two decades in broadcasting, appearing as a commentator, expert and presenter, and currently works for Rupert Murdoch’s online channel Talk.
On Tuesday, Farage dismissed suggestions the party was deeply divided, saying “people come and go in politics” and “given the sins that were committed last week, look at my levels of forgiveness”.
But the fractious internal politics of the party, which supports reducing immigration and abandoning policies to address climate change, has led to questions about whether Farage holds too much power.
The change of chairman comes months after an acrimonious battle to remove one of the party’s members of parliament, Rupert Lowe, who was suspended after being accused of bullying and threatening Reform staff members. Lowe denied the allegations and prosecutors later said they would not bring charges against him.
New figures on Tuesday showed the party had yet to receive the large political donations previously promised by its treasurer, British billionaire Nick Candy.
Reform received 1.49 million pounds ($2 million) in donations in the first quarter of this year, the first full three-month period since Candy was appointed, which was below the 2.6 million pounds donated to Labour and the 5.5 million pounds raised by the opposition Conservative Party.
Candy said when appointed that he would bring in tens of millions of pounds in donations, and more money than any other party.
Farage said it would be a big challenge to match the fundraising of more established parties, but Reform donations increased about 10-fold compared with the previous quarter.
($1 = 0.7413 pounds)
(Reporting by Andrew MacAskill; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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