Reform rinsing members with £125 MP application fee

Given the drama around whether Andy Burnham would / wouldn’t stand in the Gorton & Denton byelection, most eyes have been on the Labour Party today. As a result, people may not have noticed that Reform are having something of a byelection scandal themselves:

A £125 application fee is crazy

They are pricing working class people out of politics

All about making money for reform https://t.co/M2T5KTyhdq

— Sophie Corcoran (@sophielouisecc) January 25, 2026

We’ve confirmed that the above is real, and you can see it for yourself here. At the time of writing, the following part of the form is emboldened:

Application Fee: £125

Reform — party of the people (who have £125 to spare)

Sophie Corcoran, who posted the above, is a right-wing commentator. And she isn’t the only one pointing out the problem:

I hear that applications close to be Reform candidate in Gorton & Denton at 5pm today. It seems the party demands, for some reason, that people pay a £125 application fee.

— @Tomorrow'sMPs (@tomorrowsmps) January 25, 2026

The reason this is seen as being odd is because other parties don’t do this. It’s especially bad because Reform probably has the largest paid membership in the country, and it’s up to its eyeballs in donations from dodgy donors.

If much smaller and less well off parties don’t have to charge, why does Reform UK?

Cost you £125 if you want to apply to be a Reform byelection candidate.

Where do all those membership fees go? pic.twitter.com/9ofLJQHbMk

— dave lawrence 🐟🐟🐠 (@dave43law) January 25, 2026

To be fair, there is one good reason we can think of for the party doing this. Reform had to get rid of several MPs and councillors over the past several months as a result of them being racists, weirdoes, alleged criminals, etc. Perhaps they think they can reduce the number of freaks applying by introducing a charge?

We’re not confident that will work, of course, because the politicians they’ve given the boot to clearly weren’t strapped for cash. As such, it looks like they’re trying to keep the poors out, because Reform is — despite all claims to the contrary — a party for rich people who like to pretend they’re working class.

That would certainly explain responses like the following: