Jenrick has seized control of Reform's media operations. Let battle to replace Farage commence: DAN HODGES

It’s been a very British coup. ‘Robert has been waiting for his moment,’ the Reform insider revealed ‘and he’s finally acted. He’s in control now. He’s won the battle with Zia. He’s the heir apparent.’ To those watching from outside, the news this week of a reorganisation of Nigel Farage’s top team looked like little more than a shuffling of the deckchairs on the Titanic.Ed Sumner, the party’s Head of Communications, was ‘kicked upstairs’ to replace Dan Jukes as Farage’s personal communications director, after Jukes was exposed in a Channel 4 foreign donor sting.Miles Goslett, who had been running the party’s media operation, was dispatched to work on ‘special projects’ for Reform’s expanding research department. And Tom Waterhouse, the General Secretary, quit altogether following a series of high-profile vetting failures.But the most significant move involved the appointment of Tom Milford, previously Robert Jenrick’s senior spinner, as the new Head of Press. ‘Robert is basically in control of the party’s media operation now,’ another Reform official explained. ‘It’s not just the appointment of Tom. His whole team will be running the show. The entire strategy is going to change.’While Milford has been the face of Jenrick’s operation, two other seasoned political operators have been supporting him behind the scenes. One is Sam Armstrong, a communications veteran who worked for the Henry Jackson Society and the Conservative Party. The other is Jake Ryan, a former journalist and special adviser to Suella Braverman when she was Home Secretary.‘They basically come as a package,’ one Reform source told me. ‘They’re all serious professionals with a lot of experience. Expect to see them cleaning up the operation.’Jenrick’s success in taking control of Reform’s media operation will have a number of major implications. The first relates to the party’s overall political strategy.Jenrick is known to have become frustrated at the party’s exclusive reliance on the immigration and culture war messaging to promote its agenda. ‘Rob thinks it’s not enough to just bang on constantly about the small boats,’ one ally told me. ‘He thinks it’s vital the party establishes its credibility on the economy, and a range of other issues.’ From left, Zia Yusuf, Robert Jenrick, Nigel Farage, Richard Tice and Suella BravermanOver the past few weeks he raised eyebrows by calling for greater government intervention over Poundland, and rejecting Tory calls for an abolition of inheritance tax, claiming it was not his priority.‘He’s going to start pushing some unconventional messages on the economy,’ another ally explained. ‘It can’t just be the same old Tory free-market narrative. He thinks we need to have an offer for ordinary working people.’Jenrick’s successful takeover of Reform’s communications operation also has major implications for the ongoing civil war between Reform’s Tory defectors and the self-styled ‘true believers’. Jenrick has emerged as the standard bearer for those former Tories who have become increasingly frustrated at what they see as the unprofessionalism and ideological zealotry of some senior party officials. This has led to him being subjected to a series of thinly veiled attacks from the party’s Home Affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf.On Friday, Yusuf, who had been keeping a noticeably low profile over the past few weeks, became embroiled in a bizarre altercation with shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp at the site of a proposed migrant camp in the Oxfordshire village of Piddington.Yusuf repeatedly demanded Philp apologise for what he claimed was the failed asylum policy of the previous Tory government, a confrontation that earned the Reform man a rebuke from local residents.But according to one Reform insider, Philp was not his real target. ‘When Yusuf attacks the Tories, and in particular former Tory Home Affairs Ministers, he’s really attacking Jenrick,’ they explained. ‘He’s speaking in code. Well, actually, it’s not really that coded.’ As Reform’s standing in the polls has flatlined, then gone into free-fall, the simmering tensions between the various camps have broken out into the open.Last week, one Reform insider claimed the party was now at ‘breaking point’. Another Reform official despaired at what they saw as the party’s failure to pursue a coherent strategy or message. ‘You keep attacking the strategy,’ they complained to me, ‘but there is no strategy. People are just making it up as they go along.’A third Reform figure took aim at the decision to elevate Sumner. ‘No one gets why Nigel wants Ed Sumner as his spokesman,’ they told me. ‘He is out of his depth.’This rare internal criticism of Farage points to what is perhaps the most significant element of Jenrick’s bid to seize the levers of power. What it says about the battle over Farage’s succession.Over the past few weeks speculation has intensified that the Reform leader may be preparing to step away from the political front-line. Colleagues who assembled for the launch last week of his Remembrance documentary observed he appeared distracted and unfocussed. And Jenrick’s adroit manoeuvring is being seen by some as an indication a leadership vacancy may be opening up.‘The consensus within the party is that Robert is clearly very committed, but he’s also very frustrated by the events of the past six months’ one Reform source claimed. ‘He’s very much on the front foot. He’s hungry. Look at the Milford appointment and his recent trip to the States where he was meeting a lot of the Trump crowd. He is probably trying to signal that he will take over as leader if needed.’It’s a signal not likely to have been missed by his main rival. Zia Yusuf will almost certainly not lie down without a struggle.On Friday he was back on social media, lambasting Kemi Badenoch and the Tories for betraying the nation over immigration. And, by extension, Robert Jenrick and the other defectors who had served alongside her. As one Reform veteran observed: ‘It’s going to get very ugly. Zia despises Jenrick and the other former Tories. He’s going to hit back.’He may do. But Jenrick has got the jump on him. In any coup the first priority is to obtain control of the means of communication. And by taking over Reform’s media operation, Jenrick has seized his first objective.The fight to replace Nigel Farage has begun in earnest. And Robert Jenrick is winning it.