Rows, racism claims and tax rises: The truth about Reform councils
The Daily T
The Telegraph
4.1 • 705 Ratings
🗓️ 2 April 2026
⏱️ 55 minutes
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Summary
This time last year, after Reform won nearly 700 council seats, Nigel Farage told voters: if you want to know how Reform would run the country, look at your local council.
The party now runs 10 county councils and expects to gain more in May. They say they have taken on woke, slashed waste and saved residents money on their council tax.
But critics argue they’ve been bogged down in racism rows and broken their promises on tax.
Camilla and Tim dig into the truth about Reform’s record in local government, interviewing the council leader in Kent, and ask: what does this all mean for Farage’s chances of reaching No 10?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Telegraph. |
| 0:10.0 | After his historic win in local elections, Nigel Farage said, |
| 0:14.0 | If you want to know how reform will run Britain, look at your local council. |
| 0:18.0 | Critics say it's all rouse, racism and tax rises, but we did a deep dive |
| 0:23.0 | to find out the truth. Welcome to The Daily Tea with me Tim Stanley. And me, Camilla Tominy. Tim, it was not quite a year ago now, as we look forward to the next local elections, |
| 0:42.7 | it's perhaps also worthwhile reflecting on the last set and how well reform did. |
| 0:49.2 | Now, do you remember on that jubilant night, how happy Nigel Farage was with his party? |
| 0:58.0 | This is reform quake. That's what's going on across the country today. There's a silent majority that believes in the things that we believe in. |
| 1:02.0 | Westminster, and dare I say it, much of the media, is out of touch with where this country is moving. |
| 1:08.0 | I think that's what today's election results prove. |
| 1:10.0 | Nobody in Westminster will learn any lessons from this in a short term. |
| 1:13.8 | But I tell you what, this is happening. |
| 1:16.1 | And Farage went so far as to say, if he want to know what reform will be like in number 10, |
| 1:20.6 | watch what it does in local government. |
| 1:23.0 | And that was after reform had won control. |
| 1:26.0 | Okay, some councils are majorities, some councils |
| 1:28.4 | are minorities, but they won control of 12 different councils. |
| 1:33.5 | Now nowhere have they been more successful than in Staffordshire when Reform won 49 of 62 seats. |
| 1:41.3 | I just cite that as the first example because that was a Tory stronghold for years |
| 1:46.0 | and years. There were 16 years of unbroken conservative rule in Staffordshire. And you remember |
| 1:52.0 | the rhetoric around what they were going to do to these councils? So they were going to bring in their |
| 1:56.2 | own version of Doge, President Trump's government efficiency saving drive. |
... |
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