Reform UK’s leader plans an announcement on Thursday and says a Reform government would replace the leadership of the museum, though the law gives ministers less direct control than the pledge implies
Nigel Farage is expected to name Reform UK’s first defence spokesman on Thursday, as the party tries to recover ground in the polls and puts the armed forces at the centre of its pitch. The Reform leader has also told the Mail on Sunday that, in government, he would replace the leadership of the Imperial War Museum (IWM), which he accuses of “wokery”. The announcement comes as Prime Minister Andy Burnham denies he is planning a snap general election, and a row continues over defence funding.
The pledge on the museum
Mr Farage’s target is the IWM’s decision to stop showing Lord Ashcroft’s collection of Victoria and George Crosses. “They just get worse,” he told the paper. “Our past is not shameful.”
A Reform spokesman said the closure of the Ashcroft Gallery “showed its disdain for gallantry and raises wider questions about its attitude to the history of the nation and its support for military veterans”. He said a Reform government would replace the leadership of the IWM and other “woke” publicly owned military heritage sites, and would create statutory obligations by amending legislation and Royal Charters to ensure “due respect” is paid to the heritage of the armed forces.
The Mail on Sunday also cited the experience of a retired soldier, who said a till worker told his 11-year-old daughter, who had asked about a veterans’ discount, that the museum had “nothing to do with the military”. The museum said it was “very sorry to hear about this visitor’s experience”. It also cited more than £100,000 spent in 2024 on diversity consultants, and an apology in 2021 over a remembrance-event rap that made claims about Winston Churchill and the Bengal famine.
What happened to the medals
Lord Ashcroft, who gave £5m towards the original gallery, which the Princess Royal opened in 2010, said earlier this year that the museum was “in the grip of a woke culture”. He had intended to leave his £70m collection to the museum in his will. After trustees told him in 2024 they did not want to keep displaying the medals, he moved them to the National Army Museum. The gallery closed in September 2025 after its closure date was put back from June.
The IWM and the Government have given a different reason. The museum said in February 2025 that it needed gallery space for conflicts it covers less well, including the Cold War, Falklands, Afghanistan and Iraq. Culture minister Chris Bryant told Parliament in April 2025 that the plan was to focus on more recent conflicts, and a May 2025 answer said the museum would show Victoria and George Crosses from its own collection across its sites.
The National Army Museum has said the collection of nearly 250 Victoria Crosses will return to permanent public display by about March 2028, with smaller displays planned from July 2026.
Could a government do it?
The Prime Minister appoints ten of the IWM’s 21 non-executive trustees, according to the museum’s governance framework. Others are chosen by the Foreign, Defence and Culture Secretaries and by Commonwealth governments. The director-general is appointed by the trustees, subject to the Prime Minister’s approval. Trustees carry statutory duties under the Imperial War Museum Acts of 1920 and 1955, and ministers have told Parliament that national museums are curatorially independent. Three trustees appointed in March 2025 serve until February 2029. Reform’s plan to amend legislation and charters would therefore involve more than new appointments.
On 30 October, Mr Burnham appointed Major-General Lisa Keetley, currently Defence Services Secretary, as an unpaid trustee for four years from 1 November.
Defence spending
Defence funding is a pressure point for ministers. A senior Labour figure called promises in the Budget “lamentably delayed”, the Mail on Sunday reported. Chancellor John Healey set targets of 3% of GDP on defence by 2030 and 3.5% by 2035, with funding details due at the 2027 Spending Review. The Budget also announced a defence financing taskforce, up to £5bn through the National Wealth Fund and British Business Bank, and £400m for Army drone technology. The Office for Budget Responsibility projects spending at 2.7% of GDP in 2029-30, rising to 3.0% in 2030-31.
Defence Secretary Wes Streeting criticised Reform’s lack of a defence spokesperson in a Commons exchange last week, according to Politics.co.uk. The identity of the new spokesman has not been confirmed.
