Reform Watch: Legal threats, council tax hikes and social media blunders
Each week we cast over eyes over what Reform have been up to – from bizarre proclamations to the detail of how their attempts to run councils are going.
The Lead is keeping an eye on Reform UK and their fellow travellers. Get in touch on X, Bluesky and Instagram or email ella@thelead.uk with tips and stories. We especially want to hear from readers whose local council is now run by Farage’s followers. In today’s edition:
In Lancashire, councillor Graham Dalton threatened legal action against Labour’s opposition councillor Kim Snape after she raised the potential of Dalton profiting through plans to close care homes. This has been called “concerning” and could “threaten public accountability” according to Index on Censorship. Our sister publication, the Lancashire Lead, has the full story. And here’s a short video on the care home scandal.
The Reform-led North Northamptonshire council is planning to double council tax on second homes, despite leader Nigel Farage denouncing such policies as “madness” and “extortion”.
Reform responded to the move by saying the party opposed such measures at a national level, but not at local level. What’s new?
Yet another Reform councillor has had to apologise for his “disgusting” “choice of words” on social media. In 2023 and 2024, Peter Mason, councillor for Burton South, called the police “British hating scum” and, on another occasion, wrote, “What a surprise a statue of a fat arsed black woman.” He has now deleted his X account.
The president of the new Students for Reform group, Jake Eccles, selected by Farage himself, has said – on numerous occasions – that the King is “anti-British”. Is that what they’re calling patriotism now?
Another councillor has been suspended from Reform’s flagship council in Kent following a chaotic video leaked by the Guardian. This time it was Isabella Kemp, who had also worked as a data protection officer at Reform’s HQ. That’s nine councillors gone.
Kemp, along with another expelled councillor Brian Black, were the chair and vice chair of the Kent and Medway Fire and Rescue Authority. The Fire Brigade Union claims this has left fire service bosses with “tight limits on expenditure without a body to sign off bigger spends”.
Despite all the chaos, Reform is still winning local elections, this time in Harborough and Newark and Sherwood.
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