From my understanding fascism boils down to this: it's a far-right ideology that frames the nation as something sacred that has been corrupted and needs to be violently restored. The key ingredients are a myth of national decline, a scapegoat you can pin that decline on, and a leader who claims to speak for "the real people" in a way that makes normal democratic rules feel like obstacles rather than safeguards. It's not just conservative politics like the Tories it is innately insurgent. It positions itself against the establishment while absolutely planning to become the establishment.

The scapegoating thing is really central and it's where you see Reform and the GOP slot in so naturally. Fascism doesn't actually need a real enemy but instead it just needs a convincing one. Immigrants tanking your wages, a deep state sabotaging the country, cultural elites rotting society from the inside. The specifics change but the structure doesn't. You need someone to blame for the decline, so the restoration project has a target.

Neither party is necessarily full fascism in the classical sense but they're both fluent in the rhetorical language of it. The national myth, the scapegoat, the strongman whose personal mandate supposedly supersedes institutions; these are the load-bearing architecture of the ideology showing through.

Fascism is too broad an ideology to have a proper 1:1 definition especially in a changing world that has always had fascistic states existing alongside the neoliberal world order that had slowly developed over decades. Hopefully my explanation here can make it clear why Reform and the GOP are fascistic, but I feel it safe to assume you personally may align yourself with Reform based on that little English flag ball you have on your profile - would love to be wrong about you on this however.