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Reform UK has been branded “authoritarian-leaning” in a report by an international non-profit group that includes renowned academics, a former US General, and ex-diplomats on its advisory board.
A paper from Action for Democracy, the ‘Authoritarian Collaboration Index’, finds authoritarian-leaning parties in European democracies – including Reform UK and France’s National Rally – are increasingly coordinating across borders on policy in advance of winning office.
The report, which is underpinned by a live dataset created from 600 million articles, analyses, press releases, communiqués, conference proceedings, and investigative reporting in over 100 languages, notes that ties are growing stronger between Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and Marine Le Pen’s National Rally.
It also points to alleged growing cooperation between the far-right Alternative for Germany and the Russian state.
Far-right parties in Europe are increasingly formalising bilateral relationships as a “mechanism of legitimising one another” on a national level, the NGO finds.
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The report specifically looks at the formalisation of bilateral relations between Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party and Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN, in its French initials) party in France.
It notes that, over the past six months, the relationship between the two parties has been “used as a vehicle to lend legitimacy to one another” as “governments-in-waiting” – with the policy commitments often mattering less than the validation they confer.
Reform UK’s September 2026 conference in Birmingham – which Byline Times was barred from – saw the first formal pact between Reform and a foreign party recorded in the AuthCollab Index.
The agreed text of the so-called ‘entente cordiale’ between the two parties also affirms that neither party will allow international law – including the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) – to “constrain” sovereignty.
Both Reform and France’s National Rally have so far been cautious about exploring formal or informal relations with Alice Weidel’s Alternative for Germany (AfD).
That’s despite Reform itself having previously shunned relations with what was then called the Front National.
Commenting on the findings of Action for Democracy’s new report, Domonkos D. Kovacs, project lead of the AuthCollab Index and director for advocacy at Action for Democracy, said: “Reform UK, France’s National Rally and Germany’s AfD are increasing their collaborations and presence.”
“Far-right parties in Europe, in particular, are deepening their ties with illiberal partners and aligning their policy positions in anticipation of securing office.
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“Although these actors have not yet formed a single bloc, their growing connections are creating channels through which authoritarian ideas, tactics and narratives can cross borders, gain legitimacy and reach new audiences.”
Kovacs added that party alliances – including Reform’s alliance with RN – are being utilised to signal mutual support.
These partnerships are “embedding cooperation in institutions and practices spanning security, media, technology and policing.”
“Together these ties are creating a more connected ecosystem, and placing pressure on democratic norms.”
Despite Reform UK’s apparent refusal to praise Germany’s AfD, the authors name Reform UK alongside the AfD as an authoritarian-leaning party operating in a democracy.
The Channel Memorandum
This far-right ‘International’ saw Nigel Farage and RN’s President Jordan Bardella (a contender to be France’s next Prime Minister) sign a memorandum of understanding on Channel small-boat crossings on 4 September 2026 at Reform’s conference in Birmingham.
The leaders reportedly first met over lunch in London in December 2025 – leading to “the first formal pact between Reform and a foreign party recorded in the AuthCollab Index”.
The terms set out that a Reform government would intercept boats on entry to UK territorial waters and return those aboard for repatriation under French expulsion law.
The memorandum binds the two parties only and takes effect only if both govern, after the French presidential election in 2027, and the UK general election by 2029.
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“The commitments bind the two parties alone and would take effect only if both come to govern,” the report states. Farage presented it as an accord between their next governments.
In the agreement, both parties claimed that international law, including the ECHR, must not constrain the nations from “securing” their borders.
They committed to detaining and deporting arrivals with no ability to claim asylum. “In effect, the two parties have jointly committed their prospective governments to placing sovereign border control above international human rights obligations,” the Index finds.
The memorandum does not refer to the 2025 UK–France “one-for-one” treaty, under which Paris accepts some returns in exchange for Britain admitting an equal number, which has been used to reduce the number of small boat crossings over the Channel.
It wasn’t the first sign of cooperation. Reform launched “Operation Fortress” on 3 August, stating that a Farage-led Government would instruct the Royal Navy to intercept all asylum boats and return those attempting passage to France or Belgium.
The French Interior Ministry rejected the plan. Reform then turned to the French opposition, the report states: “Reform has found a more accommodating partner in National Rally, which does not yet face the constraints of governance.”
Mutual Legitimisation
It marks a stark reversal from 2014, when Farage refused to ally with the then National Front over antisemitism. As recently as 2024, he called RN’s economic programme a “disaster”.
A process of “mutual legitimisation” appears to be taking place, however.
RN’s Bardella dismissed the Channel 4 story about the alleged soliciting of illegal foreign donations by senior Reform figures.
Reform called the sting a hoax by “foreign-funded” climate activists – and in turn Jordan Bardella dismissed the investigation as “a smokescreen, of the kind that exists in all democracies against patriotic parties.”
The Action for Democracy report argues each leader validates the other’s “grievance narrative”, presenting both as governments-in-waiting while “recasting domestic scrutiny as hostile attack.”
At a joint press conference with Bardella in Birmingham on 4 September, Farage publicly praised RN leader (and once-more presidential contender) Marine Le Pen for supposedly purging “extreme elements” from her party.
Less than two months later, the rebranded National Front is battling fresh antisemitism scandals. Farage ally Jordan Bardella is himself facing calls to resign over claims (which he denies) that as a teenager he wrote: “The Jew has to dominate other peoples, crush them, and rob them; a Zionist is necessarily a Jew, and fundamentally so”. He is also alleged to have written “all the banks are owned by Jews,” the Guardian reported, based on MediaPart’s investigation.
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Courting Foreign Partners
Reform’s dalliances with foreign actors extend beyond Europe. On 10 August, Farage proposed that foreign prisoners should serve their sentences abroad, naming El Salvador, which has been accused by human rights groups of locking up thousands of young men without trial in an extreme effort to crack down on drug gangs.
He said Reform party chairman Lee Anderson MP would lead a delegation to explore a deal with Nayib Bukele’s Government. El Salvador had not confirmed talks, and Reform UK did not respond to a request for comment on whether this has happened.
“Reform’s courtship of foreign partners is also following a comparable pattern to the U.S. White House under Donald Trump,” the report argues.
There is a certain irony in the most anti-migrant parties cooperating so firmly with foreign leaders. “Authoritarian-leaning opposition parties [are] building the scaffolding of intergovernmental cooperation from outside government,” the authors note.
While the Netherlands’ far-right leader Geert Wilders congratulated the AfD on its Saxony-Anhalt result (where the party secured around 44% of the vote) on 6 September, RN and Farage did not. “National Rally and Farage stayed silent.”
How long that remains the case is unclear.
Reform UK was contacted for comment. The October report is available here (PDF).
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