Here’s our new column tracking the doings of Reform UK Limited and its owner Nigel Farage. As this is the first in a series, we start with a review of events in the last few months.
By-elections
A rash of Reform wins at Council by-elections in November and December resulted in the party gaining a seat each on the councils of Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, and Darlington.
In Hetton Ward in Sunderland, Reform swept up a Labour seat with 45% of the vote.
Not every by-election was a Reform success, however. Seasoned councillor Sue Jeffrey held the Labour ward of South Bank in Redcar and Cleveland.
The Tories hung on to their seat in Eaglescliffe ward, Stockton.
Councils
These recent wins follow on from the stellar Reform results at the May council elections, when 10 of the 23 councils up for re-election fell under Reform control. Across the country, Reform won 41% of all contested seats.
Among the newly-Reform local authorities is Durham County Council, where rookie councillors are waking up to the realities of local government finance.
Facing a growing black hole in their finances, the Cabinet has approved £10mn in cuts.
The Reform Councillors there have agreed an updated strategy to tackle poverty.
But they have also agreed to cut the council tax discount for low-income residents.
At Reform’s Kent County Council, Farage proudly announced that his Trump-style DOGE was marching into the council building to cut spending. They promptly marched back out again due to data protection rules.
Kent is now planning to raise council tax.
Most other Reform-led councils are following suit including two authorities in Northamptonshire and another in Worcestershire.
Others are taking an axe to spending. Lancashire county council plans to close five old people’s homes.
Warwickshire county council will reduce its council tax rises – but still make swingeing cuts to council services.
Racism
The biggest story is the avalanche of reports of Farage’s behaviour as a pupil at the prestigious, private Dulwich College. A number of alumni have finally spilled the beans about Farage verbally assaulting ethnic minority kids with racist remarks such as telling Jewish schoolmates that Hitler was right.
In a barrage of how-very-dare-you interviews and speeches, Farage has dismissed the allegations as merely “banter”. He is now threatening the whistle-blowers with legal action. Over two dozen witnesses have come out in a joint letter to confirm the allegations.
But that behaviour was half a century ago by a schoolboy. What proof do we have of Reform racism now?
Nowadays, Farage is more careful with his language. Instead of the B and N words he uses “migrants”. He commented on BBC Question Time that the majority of migrants in the UK do not work and claim benefits. Then he claimed that swans are disappearing from the Royal Parks to land on the dinner tables of migrants.
It’s harder to censor the language of the wider party. In Portsmouth the council leader had to leap to the defence of their Campaigner Addy Mo Asaduzzaman of Bangladeshi heritage, who received a volley of racist attacks on social media from Reform members.
More evidence of endemic racism comes from the behaviour of Reform in office.
The Reform Staffordshire council leader Ian Cooper resigned from his role following Hope Not Hate reports of his comments on social media.
Cooper was listed as a “Top Fan” of the racist Facebook page “The European Race”. On Twitter/X he referred to London’s mayor Sadiq Khan as a “narcissistic Pakistani”. And he claimed that British MP David Lammy should not be allowed to sit in the House of Commons.
At Lancashire county council, Reform Councillor Tom Pickup was suspended from the party for his membership of a WhatsApp group in which another member called for “mass Islam genocide.”
Coming In from the cold
A number of leading Tory figures have defected to Reform. They include former Tory Stoke MP Jonathan Gullis.who had previously said there wasn’t a cat’s chance in hell that he’d jump the Tory ship. Farage had previously said, “Never trust a Tory “.
At the local level, Redcar’s formerly Tory power couple Andrea and Steve Turner, defected to Reform earlier this year.
Andrea is a former councillor and Tory Leader on Redcar and Cleveland council. Her husband, the ex- Police and Crime Commissioner, is now Chair of the Redcar and Cleveland Reform Branch – leaving the former chair licking his wounds and considering his options.
In a reverse process, 39 Reform councillors across the country have resigned or were sacked since May, as reported by Private Eye.
For some Reform councillors the new workload is just too much. For instance, the Northumberland County Councillor Shaun Knowles is facing calls to resign after sending two emails and attending two meetings since his election in May. He had received 948 emails into his council account and received £9340.37 in allowances according to a response to a Freedom of Information request lodged by a Conservative councillor.
Oops
In Durham, the Home Office has fined Churchills Management Ltd, owned by Reform councillor Andrew Harrison, £40,000 for employing an immigrant with no right to work.
Money money money
Reform was reported to the Electoral Commission for overspending in the last election. The Commission rejected the claim as it had not located the undeclared spending.
What a relief it must have been when Crypto investor Christopher Harborne donated £9mn to Reform, according to Electoral Commission figures.
Farage may not be migrant-friendly in general but he’s willing to make the odd exception. According to the Parliamentary Register, he received a fee from Nomad Capitalist which assists economic migrants wishing to settle in the UK. That’s rich economic migrants of course.
From Russia with love?
The former leader of Welsh Reform Nathan Gill was sentenced in November to ten and a half years in prison for receiving bribes from the Russian government.
Flying the flags
At Nottinghamshire County Council, Tory defector to Reform Lee Anderson has backed his party racking up a council bill of £75,000 – for putting up England flags on street lamps.
He claimed that they would not cost taxpayers “a single penny” as business sponsors would foot the bill. Thus far no business has come forward with a contribution. Half the cost has been diverted from grants for small community projects.
On a sad note a Bristol man passed away after falling from a ladder as he was attaching a Union Jack to a lamppost.
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