A think-tank linked to Reform UK will develop plans to upend the existing British constitutional order as part of preparations for a future government led by Nigel Farage.
Jonathan Brown, who leads the Centre for a Better Britain, told the Financial Times that he plans to examine ways to weaken the authority of Britain's judiciary and civil service under a future right-wing government, and make Trump-style sweeping changes to UK law.
"What the country needs now is radical change," said Brown, who has worked as a strategic communications consultant in the Middle East for several years and was chief operating officer for Reform until last year.
The historic balance between parliament, the judiciary and the civil service has "fallen far too much in favour of the permanent structures" rather than elected ones, he said, adding "we'd want to look at rebalancing all of this".
"We're in danger of being technically a democracy but run by the judiciary and bureaucrats," he told the Financial Times.
Brown's intervention underscores how figures around Farage are studying ways to consolidate power under a right-wing government by removing constitutional obstacles they believe have thwarted the radical agendas of previous leaders such as former prime minister Liz Truss.
The plans have echoes of "Project 2025", a set of policies drawn up by rightwing US think-tank the Heritage Foundation several years ahead of the 2025 presidential election to help Donald Trump build a platform from which he could exercise the greatest powers.
At the Reform party conference in Birmingham on Friday, Farage said he wanted to prepare his party for an election that he claimed could take place as early as 2027.
Brown, who previously worked as a civil servant in the ministry of defence and foreign office, said he and other figures on the right held Trump and Truss as a "double example" of the need to "make sure the civil service co-operates" and that government policy is "not blocked by the judiciary".
Truss became the UK's shortest-serving prime minister when she stepped down in autumn 2022 after her disastrous so-called mini budget plunged markets into turmoil. At the time, Farage described Truss's tax and spend plans as the "best Conservative budget since 1986".
Trump's second presidential term has been seen by some supporters as a model for how power can be swiftly seized by the executive branch of government through a series of executive orders without substantial obstruction from other parts of the administration.
Brown named a series of obstacles facing British governments when they sought to enact major changes to policy, including Supreme Court judgments, the ministerial code that "forces politicians to do a lot of consultation with civil servants", the Climate Change Act, and The Equalities Act.
Tarun Khaitan, professor of public law at the London School of Economics, noted that the ministerial code, which governs ministers' relationships with the civil service, "is enforced politically, not legally, so a Reform prime minister is free to ignore or repeal it".
He added that the way the House of Lords responds to any legislation introduced by Reform would be crucial to how effective it was at enacting radical changes.
"Although new peers are meant to reflect the electoral strength of each party in the latest election, this is a convention, not law, so a Reform PM could choose to ignore it, pack the House with Reform peers and secure the party a majority," he said. "This would fundamentally change the UK constitution as we know it."
Reform last week announced that it would take the UK out of the European Court of Human Rights, as well as abolish the Human Rights Act, in order to embark on a policy of mass deportations of illegal immigrants.
The move comes amid rising pressure on the government to leave the ECHR, with many figures across the political spectrum claiming its judgments have been used to undermine domestic law.
Brown said he met shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick, who is widely touted to be the next Conservative leader, last month for an introductory meeting.
Jenrick is seen as more sympathetic to the idea of a deal between the Tories and Reform than some senior figures in the party, including current Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.
Reform is soaring ahead in opinion polls with about 31 per cent, compared with Labour on 20 per cent and the Conservatives on 17 per cent.
The CFABB think-tank, formerly known as Resolute 1850, has secured £1mn in funding from unnamed British donors, despite efforts to attract a wide pool of backers, particularly from the Make America Great Again movement in the US, Brown said.
He added that CFABB, which officially launched this week and has four permanent staff, was planning to strengthen transatlantic ties with a fundraising trip to the US in the autumn.
"My experience is that there's a lot of interest in the US particularly on things like the Online Safety Act," he said.
Brown said the first piece of research his think-tank, which is based in Millbank Tower near to Reform's headquarters, will conduct will be on the UK's fiscal situation, which he described as being in "huge crisis".
The second will focus on British energy policy and "how to rebalance objectives in terms of net zero not being the top priority".