Nigel Farage seems to be everywhere again: striding into rallies to the beat of Eminem, popping up at Maga parties in Washington, hosting a champagne-soaked fundraiser in Mayfair and grinning on the ITV breakfast sofa taunted by a Chinese dragon.

Since July, Reform UK has soared in the polls, threatening the Conservatives and Labour and leaving many backers daring to dream that one day Farage could enter government.

“This is a 1789 or 1917 moment,” says a new Reform donor who claims to be one of many former Tories now battering down Farage’s door to give money. “The ancien régime is going to be swept away and the UK is going to have a political revolution.”

Farage may be the ubiquitous face of Reform, but inside the party he is surrounded by a coterie of men – and they are nearly all men – working to make its hard-right leanings appeal to the British public in the way Americans were drawn to Donald Trump’s politics.

At the helm is Zia Yusuf, the entrepreneur and party chair, while Nick Candy, the billionaire property developer, is in charge of raising funds. George Cottrell, a wealthy friend of Farage and former fraudster, has no official role but is nevertheless “always around”, according to insiders.