Some of Britain’s biggest companies will descend on Reform UK’s national conference this week as the party intensifies its efforts to win over business leaders and strengthen its economic credibility.

Vodafone, EE, Heathrow and JCB are among the businesses attending or running events at the three-day gathering, which opens at the National Exhibition Centre on the outskirts of Birmingham on Thursday.

For the first time, the party is staging a dedicated business day, which it says will place “the business community at the heart of the programme”, offering attendees access to Reform’s leadership.

At least one name on the guest list already has form with the party. JCB, the digger maker chaired by Lord Bamford, donated £200,000 to Reform UK alongside an identical sum for the Conservatives, with Bamford saying both parties “believe in small business”.

Others are keen to stress that turning up is not the same as signing up. A spokesman for Heathrow said the airport had a long history of constructive engagement across the political spectrum. “Like many businesses, from airlines to pubs and banks to supermarkets, it is common practice to sponsor events at party conferences to engage policymakers and ensure they better understand the needs of consumers and the economy,” he added.

Champagne out, corporate packages in

Business Matters has previously reported that Reform almost doubled some commercial costs for this year’s conference, dropping earlier promises of free champagne and custom cocktail naming rights in favour of an event much closer in feel to a traditional party conference.

The price of some packages has climbed as the party looks to woo wealthy backers and boost its coffers. A platinum ticket has risen from £2,500 per person to £3,000 plus VAT, buying a champagne breakfast with Nigel Farage, fast-track entry and access to a special lounge. Insiders have previously described the changes as “a necessary part of our professionalisation, even if it is a bit more boring”.

The policy pitch to employers

Reform arrives in Birmingham with a policy offer aimed squarely at the businesses it is courting. The party has proposed scrapping the contentious increase in employers’ national insurance contributions for workers who are British nationals. That rise, announced in Rachel Reeves’s October 2024 Budget, lifted the employer rate to 15 per cent and cut the threshold at which firms start paying to £5,000 a year, a change the OECD found gave the UK the biggest employer tax rise in the developed world.

The party has also proposed cutting VAT for the hospitality sector to 10 per cent, half the current standard rate of 20 per cent.

Momentum since May

The stepped-up courtship of business follows a run of electoral success. Reform racked up hundreds of council wins in May’s elections, beat Labour into second place in the contest for the Welsh Senedd and finished joint second at Holyrood.

The party has been professionalising its Westminster operation too. Earlier this year it opened the doors of its Millbank headquarters, on the banks of the Thames in London, to public affairs professionals, an event that doubled as a pitch to agencies and featured a speech by Robert Jenrick, the party’s Treasury spokesman.

Not everyone believes the courtship should go unchallenged. Senior Labour figures have urged firms to scrutinise Reform’s economic plans more closely, with the Labour MP Liam Byrne saying companies are right to be concerned about how the party’s promises would be paid for. Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice has rejected that criticism, insisting the party would restore fiscal discipline and cut regulation.

For the companies heading to the NEC this week, the calculation is the one Heathrow set out: engaging policymakers at party conferences is simply part of doing business.

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