Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has announced he is giving up ownership of the party ahead of its conference this weekend.
Unlike most political parties, the Reform Party was set up as a private limited company, with Farage holding a majority stake.
He said this was to speed up the establishment of the Brexit Party (now Reform UK) in time to win the 2019 European Parliament elections.
The company’s organisational structure also “prevented the party being hijacked by bad actors”, he told BBC Radio Kent.
The Clacton MP will remain leader of Reform UK but said he “no longer needs to control Reform and will therefore sell all his shares”.
Mr Farage told BBC Southampton he intends to lead the party into the next election when he turns 65, unless someone “better looking and smarter” than him comes along.
Reform UK is planning a major overhaul of how the party is run at its conference in Birmingham, two months after its first MPs were elected, with Mr Farage arguing he is “giving ownership of the party and big decisions to members”.
For the first time, party members will be able to vote on policy motions, including adopting a new constitution that sets out the party’s rules and leadership responsibilities.
The Reform Party won 14% of the vote in July’s general election and has a foothold in Parliament with five MPs, including Farage.
Farage announced during the election campaign that he would return as leader, something he would not be able to do in a political party with a traditional structure in which the leader is elected by the membership.
Under Reform UK’s proposed new constitution, party members could remove Farage, or any other leader, with a vote of no confidence.
A vote will begin once 50% of all members submit a written request for a motion of no confidence to the Speaker.
Reformists can also force a vote if 50 members, or 50 percent of members, request it in writing to the speaker, but this only applies if there are more than 100 reformists in the parliament – a high hurdle.
Reform UK chairman Zia Yousuf claimed the party’s membership had increased by 15,000 since the general election result.
He told the BBC that membership had “expanded” to more than 80,000 as the party sought to build a dedicated activist base.
He said he would “not be surprised” if the Reform Party surpassed the Conservatives in number of MPs in the coming months.
Mr Yusuf, a billionaire former banker who was appointed chairman in July, said there had been “huge enthusiasm” for the party since the general election.
“So what we need to do now is build the infrastructure at the grassroots level so that aspirations can be translated into reality at the ballot box.”
The Conservative Party does not publish membership figures, but in the most recent leadership election in 2022, more than 140,000 members voted, a turnout of 82%.
Recruiting new members is part of the Reform Party’s plan to develop a stronger party and campaign organization that can stand up to political rivals.
Yusuf has led a process of establishing hundreds of local Reform chapters across the UK and expanding the activist base.
