General Election: Reform UK's candidate for Mid Bedfordshire explains why it's a limited company and not a party

Dave Holland, who is also Reform UK’s county organiser for Bedfordshire, said historically political parties have been structured in different ways.

“When it was set up, the easiest way, the fastest way, the most efficient way of doing it at the time was to set up as a limited company,” he said.

“So even though we’re going to be a national party because we’re standing 630 candidates, we don’t have all of the infrastructure that takes decades to build, everything from finances to backroom staff to local organisations.

“We’re structured very differently because we had to be light and nimble and small

“We’ve built this whole thing with a back room of a dozen people

“We are a political party within the practicalities of what can be achieved at the time,” he said.

Companies House shows that the company was incorporated in November 2018, and until May 2021 it was called The Brexit Party.

It also shows that Nigel Farage, Paul Oakden and Richard Tice are the company’s directors.

Holland added: “As a brand new party you can’t have a local selection process for candidates if you haven’t got a local party to elect them, for example.

“So one has to come before the other and we’re in that early stage

“But we are a very proper political party, it has to be within a legal framework.

“And the easiest, lowest cost way of achieving that was to form a limited company,” he said.

Other candidates standing in Mid Bedfordshire are:

Richard Brunning – SDP

Gareth Mackey – Independent

Maahwish Mirza- Labour

Stuart Roberts – Lib Dem

Cade Sibley – Green Party

Blake Stephenson -Conservative

The election will be held on July 4.