Reform UK plans to use Donald Trump's presidency as a launch pad to enter Downing Street in 2029, a party insider tells GB News.
It comes as Nigel Farage's party takes the shine off the Conservatives and Labour in the opinion polls.
The most recent YouGov poll shows that Reform has increased its lead over the two main parties for the second week.
The insurgent party is expected to make sizeable gains in the local council elections in May before heading north of the border in the Senedd (Welsh Parliament) and Holyrood (Scottish Parliament).
All this attention is intoxicating, one insider tells GB News, but the party must not lose sight of the ultimate goal: attaining power in 2029.
Reform UK plans to use Donald Trump's presidency as a launch pad to enter Downing Street in 2029, insider reveals
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Transitioning from a party of protest into one that can steer the country remains Reform's biggest challenge.
Or, as the party insider puts it, "how do we make the jump from being a corner shop to Morrisons? That's the million-dollarquestion".
Reform will not be encouraged by past attempts to break the stranglehold of the two main parties.
The SDP's Roy Jenkins repeatedly failed to wrest power during the 1980s.
Despite high hopes and significant public support, his party failed to make the electoral breakthrough it needed.
"They got swallowed up becausethey couldn't maintain the momentum.They didn't have depth. They also didn't have a national or localpower base," the party insider told GB News.
Applying similar lessons to Reform, the insider thinks his party's main challenge to making the transition is "credibility".
"The punters say, 'Okay, I like what you're saying,but can you govern?' It's a valid question," they said.
This is where Donald Trump's decisive victory comes in.
As the insider sees it, Trump's meteoric rise and return to power is instructive for Reform as it's campaigning on a very similar policy platform - and when America sneezes, Britain catches a cold.
As a result, the insider believes Reform UK's fate is largely tied to that of Trump's as Farage is spearheading the same project.
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Reform UK's fate is largely tied to that of Trump's as Farage is spearheading the same project, insider says
Stuart Mitchell / GB News"I think one of the things that's going to make life a lot easier for us is that because of what's happened in America, we can say by the next election that if Trump gets away with a third of what he's proposing, we will be able to point to America and say to voters: 'look, it works'."
One of the biggest tests for Reform will be on immigration, which Trump has made central to his policy agenda.
In his first week of office, Trump signed 10 executive orders focused on immigration, aiming to fulfill his campaign promises of mass deportations and enhanced border security.
Many of these orders will inevitably get snarled up in the courts, but Trump won over millions of voters with a promise to get tough on immigration.
If he can deliver on his mandate, it could bode well for Reform as immigration policies are central to the party’s appeal.
In a recent YouGov poll, immigration was cited as the main attraction by 18 per cent of those considering voting for them. Their wider policy platform and general values are given as the top pull by a further 11 per cent.
However, as we have previously explained, being a single-issue party comes with considerable risks.
