Creditors beware: VMS Enterprises Ltd vs Brexit Party (Reform UK Party Ltd)

As Reform UK tries to get an injunction against the winding-up petition (CR-2026-007405), they have complained to the court that I shouldn't be allowed to show other failed candidates, Reform UK defectors, independent contractors and small business owners how to create an account in the Court Management System and file a copy of the form comp-4.

If they block more people using the Court Management System, you can send the comp-4 form to me by email and I will give copies of all the forms directly to the judge. Here is an excerpt from the witness statement of Tom Waterhouse from Reform UK where he appears to be complaining about other creditors receiving pre-filled copies of a court form:

 

 

It is not my intention to publish the forms unless the conduct and behaviour of these people forces me to do so.

Judgment: VMS Enterprises Ltd vs The Brexit Party Ltd ([2021] SC GLA 49)

The Brexit Party Ltd became Reform UK Party Ltd, company number 11694875. This subsequently got merged into Reform 2025 Ltd to become a different Reform UK Party Limited company no. 16260766. An inconvenient consequence of this name change and merger is that people searching for judgments against the new company number 16260766 don't see the history of the old company name and company number.

The full judgment is available here for download as an Acrobat document:

 

VMS Enterprises Ltd won the case but it took them over a year to get paid after the judgment. The records about VMS Enterprises Ltd (SC476412) at Companies House show us they are no longer active. It looks like beating Brexit Party / Reform UK in court was only a phyrric victory.

Not only was there a judgment ([2021] SC GLA 49), there were also some scholarly research articles published about the dispute:

 

On 10 September 2021, Scottish Legal News published a detailed summary "Glasgow sheriff orders Brexit Party to pay £22k in unpaid invoices to advertising firm".

On 15 November 2021, the case appeared again in a Law Society of Scotland article about case management review.

Despite the Sheriff making a judgment against the Reform people in July 2021, they still didn't pay the bill. On 19 July 2022, The Scotsman reported "Reform UK face winding up petition over £22,000 debt owed to Scottish firm".

Quoting the article:

The political party, formerly led by Nigel Farage as the Brexit Party during the 2019 general election, faces a hearing in the High Court in London as early as September. Victor Shields, director of VMS Enterprises, was forced to take the party – since rebranded and led by Richard Tice – to court over the bill from the 2019 general election. Despite Glasgow Sheriff Court agreeing the party should pay up, it has consistently refused to answer letters or pay the sum owed to the businessman, forcing him to take further legal action in England. It is understood a winding up petition was served on the political party last week, with a hearing set for September 7 or soon thereafter. Reform UK has consistently rejected the claim, now worth more than £26,000 after interest and before court expenses are taken into account. A winding up order, if granted by the court, would see the party face liquidation proceedings to pay the outstanding amount and could include an investigation into director conduct. The initial Scottish court case arose after a dispute between the party and VMS Enterprises around payment for election billboards in London during the general election campaign. The court stated the party was liable for the bill for advertising services after some invoices were paid by Brexit Party staff and others were not questioned. Several invoices had gone unpaid amid claims a volunteer did not have the authority to charge the party for the billboards. However, the court stated the failure to question the payment of invoices incurred by candidates meant the party was liable for the full costs. Speaking to The Scotsman last year, Mr Shields attacked Reform UK’s “hypocrisy” in failing to pay. He said: “I was quite happy to keep quiet after the judgment because I assumed they would respect the Scottish courts and duly pay us. "They don't care. They feel they are above the law. "Richard Tice is positioning himself to the right of Boris [Johnson] and trying to capture the Conservative voters, Scottish voters too and here we are being forced to go to English courts, for me being forced to spend further money, to try and recover a debt that is legally due to us." The court case heard witnesses describe the organisation of the Brexit Party, then led by former UKIP leader Nigel Farage, as "shambolic" by a party official as it struggled to cope with its popularity and decision to pull hundreds of candidates from the ballot paper ahead of polling day. Witnesses told the court the party’s organisational structure "visibly started to fall apart", was "very unprofessional" and "beyond chaotic" ahead of the 2019 election. Reform UK’s latest accounts state that in 2020 it received nearly £3 million in donations, with a further £17m in 2019. Reform UK has been contacted for comment by The Scotsman.

Eighteen months after the judgment, almost two years after the judicial procedure began, in December 2022, VMS Enterprises Ltd used the High Court insolvency procedure to publish an insolvency notice for Reform UK Party Limited.

As a consequence, a listing was placed in the official Gazette with their old company number 11694875 and the High Court case number CR-2022-003973.

The insolvency procedure against Reform UK Party Ltd was published by the Scotsman under the headline "

Diagram demonstrating evolution of the Reform UK companies

Searching for information about the names and company numbers is tedious and time consuming. I created a colour-coded diagram so people can see and understand the relationship between the companies in the history of Reform UK at a glance.

Here is what you see if you search for Reform UK at Companies House. Which Reform UK is which?

 

Looking through the filing history of each company, you can see many minor changes, including some name changes. I put the filing history for both companies side-by-side:

 

Drilling down on the name changes, it is fascinating to put the two forms side-by-side like this:

 

Here is the full diagram I created to help people understanding the judgment and insolvency court history of Reform UK and its leaders at a glance:

 

 

Direct links to search the Gazette for old company number 11694875 and for the new company number 16260766.

If they block more people using the Court Management System, you can send the comp-4 form to me by email and I will give copies of all the forms directly to the judge.

Read more about the case against Reform UK Party Limited (CR-2026-007405).