Broken promises, rising taxes: Inside Reform UK’s first year in power

Reform has run councils for a year. As local elections near, we ask: how has the party performed in power?

Broken promises, broken roads, and broken council leadership teams – that’s the outcome of Reform UK’s first year in power, an investigation by openDemocracy reveals.

[…] Reform raised taxes in every council where it holds or shares power. Potholes continue to cause accidents and damage, and councillors’ struggles over where to make promised savings have put much-loved local services at risk of closure.

Councillor quits ‘sinister’ Restore Britain after just two days

A North Northamptonshire local councillor has quit Restore Britain just two days day after defecting to it from Reform, describing Rupert Lowe’s new party “far more sinister than I first thought”.

Cllr Darren Rance, who represents Brickhill and Queensway, announced on Wednesday that he and fellow councillor Jack Goncalvez were leaving Reform to join Restore Britain, the hard‑right party announced by Rupert Lowe last week.

Reform’s first crack at power is already in crisis

The party’s performance in Kent shows it is nowhere near ready for government

[…]

Antony Hook, leader of the Liberal Democrats in Kent, says Reform was convinced they could make large savings from cutting the county’s budget on asylum seekers.

“They were really fixated on it. Every question they’d ask would be about the cost of asylum. We kept explaining that KCC doesn’t have that large a role in that and how it’s mainly a Home Office expense.

“We tried to explain that the big problem is adult social care, but they would just say: ‘What about asylum?’

“This is where reality has now collided with ideology. They said they’d take their chainsaw to a forest of waste. But the chainsaw seems to have been made out of sponge, and rather than a forest they’ve found an open field where there’s nothing to use it on.”

Reform’s first crack at power is already in crisis, The Telegraph

#asylum #failedToDoHomework #fantasyEconomics #Kent #NigelFarage #spongeChainsaw

Reform UK removes posts after Labour legal threat

Reform UK has deleted social media posts after receiving a legal letter from the Labour Party.

Addressed to Llŷr Powell, Reform UK’s by-election candidate, the letter accused Reform of using copyrighted images in its material for the Caerphilly by-election.

On 7 October, Labour gave the party 24 hours to remove an image featuring the first minister and candidate Richard Tunnicliffe, warning that failure to do so could lead to legal proceedings.

Reform UK removes posts after Labour legal threat, BBC

#copyright #failedToDoHomework #Labour #LlŷrPowell

Reform MP’s questionable claims about street problems anger residents

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.

MP’s claims about street problems anger residents, BBC

#Cheshire #failedToDoHomework #GreenwayRoad #imaginaryProblems #SarahPochin

Kent DOLTS: First with the year old public KCC report…

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.

Kent DOLTS: First with the year old public KCC report…, Tim Prater, fhld.uk

#failedToDoHomework #Kent #LiberalDemocrats #OldNews #TimPrater

Reform UK slam solar energy – then miss the meeting to stop it

Reform UK has received millions of pounds in donations from climate deniers and fossil fuel sources, so it is not a surprise that Nigel Farage wants to make net zero the “next Brexit”.

The party is especially opposed to green energy projects in Lincolnshire, where senior figures have spoken out against solar panel farms — large installations of renewable electricity in the countryside.

Richard Tice, Reform’s deputy chair and the MP for Boston and Skegness, promised that his Lincolnshire colleagues would oppose solar farms “every step of the way”. “Reform control the Mayoralty and County Council in Lincolnshire with myself as local MP,” he wrote on X. “If you are thinking of investing in solar farms, battery storage systems, or trying to build pylons, think again.”

Which makes it all a bit embarrassing that on Monday, two of Reform’s top councillors missed an important date to discuss a new solar panel project.

Reform UK slam solar energy – then miss the meeting to stop it, Hope Not Hate

#failedToDoHomework

Reform councillor’s boast about removing ‘trans-ideological’ books from children’s library sections was a lie

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.

Reform councillor’s boast about removing ‘trans-ideological’ books from children’s library sections falls flat, theguardian.com

#failedToDoHomework #imaginaryProblems #Kent #PaulWebb #warOnWoke #InTheNews

Resignations, Cancelled Meetings and Culture Wars: How Reform UK Councils Are Descending Into Chaos

Nigel Farage’s band of newly-elected councillors are already starting to struggle, reports Josiah Mortimer

After the election counts finished and the camera crews headed home, Reform UK councillors – over 800 of them now, running 12 councils – had to grapple with a new question: ‘What are we going to do now?’

Now that question is starting to be answered.

We’ve dug through local news coverage and talked to local constituents and opposition councillors on the ground to figure out what the new Reform councils have been up to. It’s not been smooth sailing, to say the least.

Across England there have been stories of cancelled meetings, suspensions, resignations, and more than a few culture wars.

Here’s just Reform’s local councillors have been getting up to since May 1st. It’s not been smooth running.

Resignations, Cancelled Meetings and Culture Wars: How Reform UK Councils Are Descending Into Chaos, Josiah Mortimer, bylinetimes.com

#cancelled #Chaos #failedToDoHomework #JosiahMortimer #Quiting #InTheNews

Reform councillors reported to police by colleague

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”.

Reform councillors reported to police by colleague, BBC

#Devon #EdHill #Exeter #failedToDoHomework #Infighting #NeilStevens #police #TonyStevens #vettingFail #InTheNews