Reform’s failed Jeremy Corbyn impersonator

Yet another Reformer with an eyebrow-raising past is Archie Manners, a former Tory rising star who now describes himself as a “YouTube prankster” but is best known as a failed Jeremy Corbyn impersonator.

Manners is to join Reform-aligned think tank Resolute 1850, led by the party’s former chief operations officer Jonathan Brown – and aiming to help the party with “policy development, briefing and rebuttal”. It is rebranding as the Centre for a Better Britain and seeking funding from Donald Trump’s MAGA movement.

Manners, whose brief includes social media and communications, once had political ambitions of his own – attempting to run in Corbyn’s Islington North constituency last year after changing his name to… Jeremy Corbyn. Alas, that hit the skids when his official nominator alleged she had been deceived into signing his nomination forms thinking she was endorsing the actual former Labour leader.

Hope Purcell, a bookseller, said she was asked by Manners “to support Jeremy Corbyn” outside Finsbury Park station, which is in the Islington North constituency, and signed up. It is illegal to deceive electors into thinking they are voting for someone else under the Representation of the People Act 1983 and last year the Metropolitan Police said they were aware of the matter and the information was being assessed. Rats in a Sack asked the Met whether the investigation was still ongoing, but at the time of going to press they had yet to respond.