Key facts
- Angus MacIntyre served in the military for 40 years and retired as a Royal Air Force wing commander last week.
- A senior Reform UK official said the party wants a comprehensive program it can deliver, not a flimsy manifesto.
- Reform backs raising defense spending to 3% of GDP by 2030 and NATO's 3.5% target by 2035, in line with Labour.
- The party says it would fund higher defense spending through £45 billion of cuts to areas such as welfare.
- A defense industry representative said Reform had no defense policy and no person for the industry to engage with.
- Researcher Sophia Gaston said 83% of Reform backers favored more defense spending, higher than for any other party.
Reform UK announced Angus MacIntyre as its defense spokesperson on November 5, 2026, filling a post the party had left vacant for more than two years. MacIntyre served in the military for 40 years and retired as a wing commander in the Royal Air Force last week to take up the role, the party said.
A senior party official, granted anonymity to discuss policy, told POLITICO that Reform wants a comprehensive program it can deliver rather than a flimsy manifesto with a few headline commitments. Party leader Nigel Farage said having someone of MacIntyre's stature speak for Reform on defense showed how seriously the party takes protecting the interests of Britain's military. MacIntyre blamed successive Conservative and Labour governments for underfunding the military.
The party's existing defense positions center on its core voter concerns: deploying the Royal Navy against small-boat crossings in the Channel, ending diversity initiatives in the armed forces and cadets, granting armed forces immunity from prosecution for actions in combat operations, and giving veterans priority for social housing. Reform backs raising defense spending to 3% of GDP by 2030 and NATO's 3.5% target by 2035, in line with the governing Labour Party, and says it would pay for the increase through £45 billion of cuts to areas such as welfare.
Farage has faced questions over comments made in 2014, when he said he admired Russian President Vladimir Putin as an operator. He has since called Putin a very bad dude and said the UK should shoot down Russian jets in British airspace, but he also called Kyiv corrupt and promised to review Britain's military aid to Ukraine. One British defense industry representative said Farage's comments on Ukraine were unhelpful, citing defense contracts with Ukraine and the industry's wish to support the country.
Sophia Gaston, a British foreign policy researcher who wrote a report to be published on November 5, 2026, on public attitudes to defense, said 83% of Reform backers favored more defense spending, higher than for any other party, and that 92% of Reform voters regard Russia as a threat to global peace. A YouGov poll last month found Russia was by far the biggest threat for British voters.
Defense industry representatives said the absence of a spokesperson had made engagement difficult. One said Reform had no defense policy and no person to engage with, describing its only policy as wanting to spend more money without saying what on. Another said the delay was baffling given the geopolitical environment. Following the appointment, the party will look to publish detailed defense policy documents, as it has on immigration and the economy, and plans to build out its foreign policy team over the next year, a senior Reform adviser said.