“A serious democracy does not punish voters for voting a certain way. That is called tyranny.”
Reform UK’s latest immigration policy – widely condemned as vindictive and divisive – has triggered a fierce backlash across the political spectrum, including from one of the party’s own former MPs.
The proposal, unveiled ahead of local elections, would see migrant detention centres deliberately placed in areas that vote for the Green Party, while sparing constituencies that back Reform. The policy forms part of a broader plan to detain and deport tens of thousands of people each year, with new facilities holding up to 24,000 migrants at any one time.
West Midlands Labour MPs write to borough Reform leader after alleged posts by Stuart Prior
Labour MPs have called for a Reform UK election candidate in Essex to be suspended after he allegedly celebrated the rape of two Sikh women in the Midlands.
Nigel Farage’s flagship council quietly sold Two Stones, one of the sculptor’s earliest commissions, as part of a wave of publicly owned art disposals that critics call “shameful”
Reform-run Kent County Council has sold off a work of public art by one of Britain’s most respected sculptors, Antony Gormley.
Gormley’s ‘Two Stones’ was hosted outside the Kent History and Library Centre in Maidstone until a few days ago.
The work was one of Gormley’s first commissions. The renowned artist studied and later taught at the Maidstone School of Art.
Kent County Council has declared an “illegal migration emergency” after opposition councillors walked out of a debate in protest.
The authority passed a motion, put forward by Reform UK councillors, stating that the county was a “frontier for the influx of illegal migrants” and residents were “dealing with the consequences”.
Other parties chose to leave the chamber ahead of the vote, claiming the debate breached electoral rules ahead of a by-election for the Cliftonville ward, with Liberal Democrat group leader Antony Hook stating that the motion was “based on prejudicial, discriminatory assumptions”.
The leader of Reform UK-run Kent County Council has described the suspensions and expulsions of councillors from her party as “a sorry state of affairs”.
Linden Kemkaran was speaking after five of her colleagues were expelled for bringing the party into disrepute.
It followed a leaked recording of a video meeting in which Kemkaran was seen shouting and swearing at other Reform councillors.
The problems that the council is facing suggests Nigel Farage’s party is far from ready to exercise power
[…]
For Reform, east of Edenbridge became an Eden; during a fractious internal party meeting during which council members attempted to discuss the budget, leaked by councillors, leader of the council Linden Kemkaran said: “We are a shop window. People are judging us every single minute of every single day – Nigel knows that, he is super aware that we are the flagship council.”
But like Eden, not everyone is capable of indefinitely living in paradise. Four members were initially suspended under suspicion of leaking the video, and five have now been removed from the party for bringing it into “disrepute” and displaying a “lack of integrity”.
A councillor who was heard to describe some children in care as “downright evil” is being investigated for an alleged breach of the members’ code of conduct.
Cambridgeshire County Council has confirmed an investigation into the allegation against Reform UK member Andy Osborn is taking place after a complaint was lodged.
Drunken displays, racist rants and dodgy deals are just some of the reasons that Reform councillors and officials are dropping like flies…
While Reform UK can celebrate a steady drumbeat of defections and by-elections boosting their number of councillors, they’re finding it somewhat hard to keep hold of the ones they’ve already got. The party managed to shed a remarkable eight councillors in September alone, and have lost 24 since May, for a variety of embarrassing reasons.
To make matters worse, even Reform HQ staff are not safe from the perpetual churn. Read on for a breakdown of those suspended, expelled and otherwise exiled from the Reform Party movement over the past few months…
A row has broken out over Reform UK’s plans to limit the type of flags flown over Lancashire County Council’s headquarters.
The authority’s ruling group voted to launch a cabinet-led review of the symbols that can be raised at County Hall in Preston.
However, the party has already nailed its preferences to the mast, claiming that the proposed changes are designed to unify all Lancastrians under the banners of Lancashire and the UK – regardless of other aspects of their identity.
But opposition groups noted that the Pride flag, representing the LGBT community, would be the principal casualty of the rethink – and accused Reform of engaging in a culture war.
Angry residents have criticised their MP after she claimed their street had been blighted by violence and anti-social behaviour caused by illegal immigration.
Sarah Pochin, the Reform MP for Runcorn and Helsby in Cheshire, said in a video posted on Facebook she had received “disturbing reports” from residents and businesses about incidents happening in Greenway Road, Runcorn.
Residents said this portrayal of their street was “untrue” while Cheshire Constabulary said it had received no such reports.
Councillors have raised the alarm over West Northamptonshire’s controversial deal with Reform’s Musk-inspired DOGE team.
Councillors in West Northamptonshire last night slammed Reform UK’s plan to access council data as part of a drive that it claims is intended to reduce local “fraud and waste”.
In a key test of Reform’s battle to access data from councils, West Northamptonshire became the first to welcome unnamed and unpaid “experts” from the party’s ‘DOGE’ unit into the council to find ways to cut its budget.
The council says it will reserve the right to stop DOGE from accessing restricted personal information, and will vet the members of Reform’s unit to ensure they have relevant qualifications. However, opposition councillors protested against the proposal in local cabinet meeting last night.
One opposition councillor claimed decisions were being based on ‘allusions to the Roman Empire’
Millions of pounds are to be reallocated from council efforts to fight climate change. Leicestershire County Council’s new Reform UK leaders voted this week to divert £2 million from carbon reduction initiatives into efforts to mitigate flooding and other severe weather events.
Reform UK has expelled one of its own Devon councillors from the party over a row about a letter being sent without consent.
Devon County councillor Ed Hill, (Pinhoe & Mincinglake), has been kicked out over claims by the party that he distributed a letter on free school meals to MPs and the media purportedly signed by 17 Reform councillors.
This hot in from the Reform UK Kent DOLTS (Department Of Looking Terminally Stupid) team, presumably the first outcome of their clever, clever AI deep dive into the top secret numbers from their interrogation on Monday.
Except it’s no such thing. This is a direct read from a KCC report to KCC Audit Committee in May 2024 (so it’s over a year old, talking about older things) which Kent’s processes and audit found, reported, made public, discussed and sought to improve.
Paul Webb said he ensured books and material were pulled from children’s section of Kent libraries, but it emerges they were never there
A boast by a Reform UK councillor that he ensured the removal of “trans-ideological material and books” from the children’s section of his county’s libraries has fallen flat after it emerged that no such material ever existed there.
A council leader has been criticised after claiming the authority had removed transgender-related books from the children’s sections of its libraries.
In a post on social media, Kent County Council’s Reform UK leader Linden Kemkaran said the books were to be removed with immediate effect in a “victory for common sense in Kent”.
However, the council said a single transgender-related book aimed at adults was relocated from a display at the entrance of a library to a section unlikely to be visited by children.
Labour MP for Chatham and Aylesford Tristian Osbourne has called the alleged removal of the books “unedifying gender baiting of the LGBT community”.
Anne Marie Morris, twice suspended while an MP between 2010 and 2024, will lead Reform’s social care policy
Reform UK has hired a former Conservative MP who was suspended for using the N-word.
Anne Marie Morris, who had the whip withdrawn by Theresa May in 2017 for using the term in a debate about Brexit, will lead Reform’s social care policy. She is one of several ex-Tories who have defected to Nigel Farage’s party.
Morris had used the phrase “[N-word] in the woodpile” in an event at the East India Club, and apologised after the remarks came to light. She had the whip returned to her six months later – one day before a crucial Brexit vote for the then-government.
Reform UK has expelled its candidate in a Sefton council by-election after “unacceptable” comments surfaced on social media.
The party confirmed it had removed its support for Irene Davidson, who was due to stand as a candidate in the Blundellsands by-election on 19 June.
Davidson’s X account has now been deleted.
Some of the posts from Davidson’s account, seen by the BBC, included a cartoon of King Charles labelled as a traitor, and calls for Islam to be “eradicated” from the UK.
Despite being expelled from the party, Davidson will still appear on the ballot paper as Reform UK’s candidate as the papers have already been printed.
Infighting in the Reform UK party in Devon has seen two county councillors and an election agent reported to police by a colleague over election expenses.
Neil Stevens and his brother Tony were elected for Reform in May and documents seen by the BBC allege Neil Stevens spent about £170 more than the campaign spending limit.
This was reported to police by Ed Hill, who was also elected for Reform in May and was the chairman of the Exeter branch but was removed from the post for what the party says was bringing it “into disrepute”.
The resignation of Zia Yusuf as Reform UK’s chairman matters because he was a central character in the stand out trend in British politics since the general election – the rise and rise of Nigel Farage’s party.
After 11 months in the role, Yusuf said on Thursday that working to get the party elected was no longer “a good use of my time”, without expanding further.
Farage described Yusuf as a huge factor in Reform’s success in last month’s elections, but added that he believed he had “had enough” of politics.
It comes after Yusuf said it was “dumb” for Reform’s newest MP to call for a ban for the burka – a veil worn by some Muslim women that covers the face and body.
The unelected chair of the party stood down from his role in the party, following a row in which he called a question from a Reform MP about banning burkas “dumb”.
Commenting on remarks made by Richard Tice about preventing new recruits to Reform-controlled councils from joining the local government pension scheme alongside threats to cut the pay of existing employees, UNISON assistant general secretary Jon Richards said today (Thursday):
“This looks like another Reform UK policy scribbled on the back of a beer mat.
“Local authorities are obliged to offer access to the local government pension scheme to all new starters.
“The scheme is well-funded and affordable. Many council employees aren’t on final salary schemes anyway.
“Forcing council staff on to inferior pensions would leave retired workers much poorer and add to the already severe recruitment crisis in local government.
“Employees’ pensions aren’t the reason why many councils are on a financial precipice. It’s the decade and more of draconian budget cuts under Conservative governments.
“Reform claims to be on the side of workers. But declaring ‘war’ on low-paid staff won’t serve communities or cut budgets.”
Social workers raise questions over clash of values and lack of experience of new lead members at Leicestershire County Council
Concerns are mounting over the appointment of two Reform councillors as political leads for children’s and adults services in Leicestershire.
Joseph Boam, 22, now heads up adult social care at Leicestershire County Council (LCC), and Charles Pugsley, 19, who is still at university, has been made cabinet member for children and family services.
The pair were appointed following the local elections in May, and are responsible for multi-million pound budgets.
Stuart Adam, a senior economist at Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank, said increasing the annual income tax allowance to £20,000 could cost between £50bn and £80bn a year, depending on the details.
“As it stands, I don’t think they’ve really set out how they would pay for such big giveaways,” he said.
“Of course they don’t have to do that yet – we’re not at a general election. But at some point, if they’re going to be a party of government, they would have to make those numbers add up.”
Exposing Farage and the far-right political party he leads
Nigel Farage claims he wants to take back control for working people. But Reform UK is a far-right political party run by City traders and fuelled by millionaires. We’re shining a light on their shadowy practices.
Reform-run Kent County Council will not fly a Pride flag this summer and will remove the Ukrainian flag from the chamber, the new council leader confirmed.
At the beginning of May, Reform swept to a local elections victory in Kent taking 57 of 81 council seats, wiping out a Conservative majority which had stood for almost 30 years.
On Thursday, councillors heard from the new leader of Kent County Council, Linden Kemkaran, at their annual general meeting at County Hall in Maidstone.
Ms Kemkaran, Kent’s Reform leader, told the chamber her new administration had little time for “special interest groups” or the flags that represent them.
Reform UK presided over its first full Kent County Council (KCC) meeting last week, with the new leader announcing a cut in councillor allowances and a special post for finding savings.
On a morning dominated by frequent applause and table thumping by Reform’s members, KCC’s new leader Linden Kemkaran said she regarded her new role as a “privilege”.
But she pledged to look at every area of spending at the authority with the creation of a department of local government efficiency (DOLGE) and proposed to cut member allowances by 5%.
Nigel Farage’s Reform refuses to tell people whether it has their data and doesn’t delete it when they ask. We’re challenging Reform so it respects data law.
When we gave people tools to find out what data political parties were holding on them in the run-up to the general election, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK was by far the worst, ignoring the vast majority of requests.
Not only did Reform fail to respond to requests for the data that they hold on individuals – as all organisations that hold data on individuals are required to do by law – but they also refused to delete that data.
No organisation, especially a political party, should be allowed to ignore fundamental data rights.
Swinney accuses Reform of racism over Sarwar advert
First Minister John Swinney has accused Reform UK of a “racist attack” on Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.
Both the SNP and Labour have complained to Facebook’s parent company Meta about a Reform advert running on the site ahead of a South Lanarkshire by-election.
The video features text claiming Sarwar “will prioritise the Pakistani community”.
Reform has denied the video is racist and said it has no plans to take it down.
The appointment of an all-male cabinet to Lancashire County Council by Reform UK has been described as “retrograde step” by opposition councillors.
The new group was unveiled at the council’s annual general meeting with all nine positions filled by men.
Gina Dowding of the Green Party said this was “disappointing” and the “first time since we moved to the cabinet system that there’s been no women at that top table”.
Nigel Farage hailed his party’s election success as proof that Reform had professionalised but, just a few weeks on, “the truth is beginning to emerge”, said The New European, “as newly-elected Reform councillors begin to quit, wasting tens of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money” on by-election costs for their replacements.
A newly elected councillor who quit Reform UK after she was suspended over a social media post has described it as a “cult”, and accused the party’s leader Nigel Farage of treating its members with contempt.
Donna Edmunds, who was elected for Hodnet Ward in Shropshire, was suspended following a post on X about her plans to defect from the party after the local elections.
“I thought I was joining a party. It turned out I had joined a cult,” Edmunds said in a statement.
