The Reform UK party has launched its "most ambitious" local election campaign, holding a large rally in the hope of translating momentum in opinion polls into local council seats. The party is neck and neck with Labour in some polls, and even ahead of the Conservatives. However, the party is also facing internal turmoil, with Rupert Lowe, one of the five Reform UK members elected last year, being expelled from the party due to disputes.
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04-01, 2025Reform UK will contest almost all of the 1,600 local council seats up for re-election on May 1st, as well as six mayoral races and a by-election to replace former Labour MP Mike Amesbury, who was convicted of assault. Party leader Nigel Farage told a rally in Birmingham that the local elections are the "first major hurdle" on Reform UK's road to power. This election will be a significant test of the party's popularity, which has openly stated its ambition to win the next general election.
Since first winning parliamentary seats in the July election, Reform UK has seen its support in opinion polls surge, and claims to have recruited more than 220,000 members. Friday's rally was Reform UK's largest event to date, with the party saying 10,000 people attended, most paying £5 to attend the event at the Birmingham arena. Farage entered the venue on a JCB vehicle to deliver his keynote speech, saying it was lent to him by JCB chairman and major Conservative donor Lord Bamford.
Farage said potholes were "a perfect symbol of broken Britain," accusing local councils of "inactivity." In the 2024 local elections, Reform UK contested only 12% of the available council seats, but this year Farage announced the party was fielding almost a "nationwide slate of candidates." Most of the councils up for election are county councils, large bodies like Lancashire and Kent, responsible for services such as social care, education, road maintenance and libraries.
In some areas of England without district councils, such as Cornwall, Doncaster and Buckinghamshire, local authorities are responsible for all services, including refuse collection, public housing and planning. In some areas, local elections have been postponed until next year to allow for parliamentary restructuring, including in Essex, where Reform UK had expected to perform well. Reform UK has launched a petition against the postponement. The party has announced that former Cheshire East councillor and local magistrate Sarah Pochin will stand as its candidate in the upcoming Runcorn and Helsby by-election.
Farage downplayed the pressure on Reform UK to win the seat, which Labour won with a 34.8% majority at the last election. "For Labour, this is a must-win by-election," Farage said. "We're going to give them a very good run for their money. Whatever we do." Farage also referred to national-level ambitions, including deporting illegal immigrants and withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights. He expressed his intention to create a "British version of Doge," emulating Elon Musk's non-governmental department, which is tasked with cutting positions and other spending in the US government.
Ahead of the election, Farage said the party had submitted 3,000 freedom of information requests to find examples of wasteful spending. "When we win these county councils, we will send auditors in, we will get rid of fraudulent contracts, we will cut spending and we will do our best to deliver on all our promises," he said.
