Nigel Farage recently appointed Jack Eccles as president of the new Students for Reform group, a national network comprising multiple associations across universities.
The Lancaster University politics student already leads the Lancaster University Reform UK association, and has appeared on GB News this year alongside Martin Daubney, one of the country’s most prominent right-wing journalists.
Students for Reform is a new organisation, established by Reform UK, which seeks to promote party policies among university students.
Just yesterday (7th December), it was announced that Students for Reform has set up associations at universities including Durham, York, Edinburgh and Sussex, with the hopes of expanding to Manchester, Birmingham and Oxford soon.
The Lancaster Tab spoke to Jack about why he believes more students are turning to Reform, and what his role as the 21-year-old president of the student organisation looks like.
Why are more students turning to Reform?
Whilst Reform still has low overall support among young people, recent data indicates that support, particularly among young men, is rising. Voting intention by age for October 2025 shows 13 per cent of young people – those aged 18 to 24 – would vote for Reform, whereas only 8 per cent would vote for the Conservatives.
In the 2024 general election, only 9 per cent of young people voted for Reform, and it has been lower historically, sitting at around 7 per cent in previous years.
Jack told the Lancaster Tab he believes the rise of Reform is down to a loss of British values and declining support for Conservatism, leaving a “gap in the market” that the party has filled.
He said: “British values have kind of been lost and a lot of young people still cherish that sort of stuff.”
Asked why he voted for Reform in the last general election, rather than Labour or the Conservatives, Jack said he’s never been a staunch supporter of either party. Reform, in his view, introduced a new perspective to British politics, with the 21-year-old adding that Reform MPs he’s met “behind the scenes” are all “lovely people”.
But why Nigel Farage specifically? The Lancaster student argued intuition is one of the greatest assets politicians can have: “[Nigel] can spot issues before they actually take place.” The Reform leader is, according to Jack, “blatantly honest and blunt in the best way.”
‘Woke left ideologies’
Jack believes the biggest issue on campuses right now is the suppression of free speech, and in his announcement as president of Students for Reform, he used the term “woke left ideologies” to describe what the new association aims to challenge.
When pushed to define what “woke left ideologies” means, he insisted that those with opposing views to his own should be allowed to express them. What he doesn’t accept, however, “is when they [those with opposing views] turn it around to me and they’re like, ‘oh, yeah, you can’t support what you believe.’” He claimed that “radical-left ideology” often drives this attitude in young people.
The Lancaster Tab asked the 21-year-old how he would respond to claims that speech containing hateful content does not fall under freedom of expression, and therefore shouldn’t be promoted on campus. Jack argued that “Reform isn’t a hateful party” and operates legally with “millions” of supporters.
He continued: “They can disagree with it at the end of the day [but] the party’s above board. That’s how it is.”
Jack’s new role and the process of election
Jack’s new role as president involves overseeing student associations at universities nationwide, meaning there will be a lot of travelling.
However, the 21-year-old also described a desire to foster community and not have the organisation resting solely on his shoulders.
He said: I don’t want it to just be me and a couple of people running the entire show […] So that’s what I’m trying to emphasise: Getting as many different people from different universities involved directly, talking to me directly, because I want it to be more [of] a community.”
Speaking about the election process itself, Jack explained that formal elections will take place when the association is in a more “solidified state” and will allow members to vote for who takes on specific roles.
The reaction on campus
Jack wanted to talk about the reactions he’d received on campus as a right-wing student. He said he speaks to “plenty of lovely people on the left who are absolutely fine”, but claimed there is a “growing group of radical students who are just out of control”.
He called the harassment faced by student Reform voters “obnoxious”, alleging the “university does nothing to address” a supposedly growing number of students who “attack anyone they disagree with”.
He added: “It’s just gotten to a point where there’s no room for, like, normal conversation. Now it’s become a them-against-us situation […] I just wish that more people were open to more of these conversations. I don’t know why it has to be this factionalism.”
Lancaster University said: “Lancaster University is a safe and welcoming place to work and study, where freedom of speech within the law is upheld. Our community values respectful debate, and people should expect to meet with diverse opinions that do not necessarily align with their own.
“All students are free to participate in political life both on and off campus, provided their activities remain within the law.
“Bullying and harassment are not tolerated on our campus, and the University would encourage any student to report behaviour that they believe constitutes a breach of our Student Bullying and Harassment Policy.”
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