Now they have stopped even pretending. Reform UK has announced that their slogan for the local elections will be:
“Vote Reform, Get Starmer Out.”
Hmm. Would that really help us? The successor would probably come from the Left. Ed Miliband? Angela Rayner? Would either of them lead us to sunlit uplands?
But I wish to make a wider point. For as long as I can remember, there has been the lament that local election results are heavily influenced by national events. Typically, the Party in Government is “punished”, especially in mid-term. A lament follows that it’s blameless “hard-working councillors” who are penalised. (Some councillors are more hard-working than others. But in the hours after a wounding defeat, any message of consolation is welcome regardless of how insincere.)
For his part, Sir Keir Starmer launched Labour’s local election campaign last month by (absurdly) declaring that the conflict in Iran is “not our war.”
None of the parties seems to be very interested in talking about the record of their councils. The Green Party naturally prefer to go on about Gaza than the disastrous record of their councils – not least on environmental issues. Last month, it was reported that 30,000 bulbs in Bristol, planted by around 70 volunteers, were then mowed over by council staff.
It was a bit different last year. Nigel Farage toured the country adapting his message to each local audience with the theme that the Conservative county council was applying socialist policies. It was meekly complying with woke absurdities. It routinely increased Council Tax by the maximum allowed without holding a referendum. It was wasting money. It had failed to bring in a JCB PotholePro to fix the potholes. I’m afraid there was much truth in his analysis. Kemi Badenoch has called for “authentic Conservatism.” Could we honestly claim that residents in any given locality notice much difference in being under the rule of Conservative councillors rather than Labour or Lib Dem ones?
So Farage’s message resonated. Would the Reform-run councils prove to be any different? Not really. The newbies have generally left all the bureaucrats they derided for being on six-figure salaries continue to run the show. The “officers” tend to flinch at any criticism of the way they have been managing. They vaguely imply it would be illegal to do anything differently. Sometimes they cunningly sound a bit more positive and agree to “review” arrangements. Nothing more is heard.
As a Conservative, I take no satisfaction in Reform’s failure in this respect. “Ah,” say the pundits. “Not so easy, is it? Everything has been cut to the bone. It’s impossible to save money on statutory services.” Complete nonsense. But one sees how that narrative is strengthened.
How much better if Reform UK councils had shown more determination, and then the Conservatives had challenged them to go further. Healthy competition to deliver value for money would be welcome. Instead, we have the councillors from all parties offering snivelling defeatism.
I even offered Reform UK councillors some tips – both in public and private. I would forward them FOI responses showing the absurd number of communications staff they had. Or point to their assets registers showing the number of surplus properties that could be sold – thus reducing the debt and therefore the spending on the interest. A recruitment freeze would have been an obvious immediate move. What above spending the large Public Health budget more effectively to ease the pressure on adult social care? What about a serious effort to reduce the number of children placed in absurdly expensive children’s homes (where they are vulnerable to “grooming gangs)? What about a whole lot of other ways where spending was being wasted or even spent in a way that was damaging? What response did I get?
“I tell you naught for your comfort, Yea, naught for your desire, Save that the sky grows darker yet And the sea rises higher.”
I wasn’t the only one ignored. What about their own leaders? Those rousing campaign speeches of Farage were widely cheered – but the content quickly forgotten. Richard Tice has made a perfectly reasonable challenge about the high fees and poor performance of Council pension funds compared to the private sector. None of his councils has actually done anything about it, so far as I can tell.
Consider the example of Nottinghamshire County Council. In April, Nigel Farage said:
“In Nottinghamshire, council tax has increased by almost 23% in just five years. Local residents from Ashfield to Newark are paying more for less. Put simply: you’re being ripped off…Nottinghamshire County Council’s CEO earns over £196,000 a year – £29,000 more than the Prime Minister – to oversee this mess. Conservative maladministration has run up over £464 million worth of debt. That’s costing local people more than £53,000 every single day just in interest payments. It’s no wonder when the council overspent by £880,000 on its new £19 million HQ, wasted over £150,000 on the development of the ‘MyNotts’ mobile app that almost no-one uses, and spent over £3 million on consultants in just two years. The list goes on. And this is all funded by you: the taxpayer.”
A powerful charge list? Who was to blame? Ben Bradley must have been a prime culprit. As the spendthrift Conservative Leader of Notts County Council he showed more interest in boasting about extra spending than in finding savings. Council Tax was raised during his leadership by just under the maximum level that would have required the consent of a referendum – which would have been most unlikely to have been granted. Council tax was put up by 4.8 per cent rather than five per cent in 2023 and 4.8 per cent rather than five per cent in 2024.
Bradley has been given the position of Reform UK’s Head of Local Government Action to assist with DOGE.
Cutting wasteful spending requires courage and determination to overcome the bureaucratic obstruction. Rather than helping to achieve that, Bradley‘s appointment instead gives someone to offer comfort and excuses for failure.
Before the local elections last year, Reform UK set out a mission to find savings with the aim of lowering Council Tax. It was to be a bold and radical alternative to the established parties. Bradley‘s appointment sent out a signal that the mission has been abandoned. That was confirmed by Reform UK councils increasing Council Tax ahead of inflation – 3.99 per cent in Nottinghamshire.
Many will feel a sense of betrayal. As George Orwell put it:
“No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”
All is not lost. People may be voting on national issues on May 7th, but there could be some interesting local consequences. The Conservatives could have some mixed results. Certainly, there will be losses to Reform. But there is also the prospect of gains from Labour. In London, the return of Wandsworth and Westminster – those former flagships of authentic Conservatism lost last time round – is felt to be in the offing. Along with the capture of Barnet and perhaps some other places.
In whatever councils the Conservatives do gain or hold those leading them have a responsibility to follow Conservative principles. That is not just to benefit their local communities but also to help establish credibility for the Conservative Party generally. The missions we have: A smaller state. Cutting tax, wasteful spending and bureaucracy. Fostering civic pride and home ownership with planning policies that reflect the values of Sir Roger Scruton rather than Corbusier. Cutting crime.
To say that pursuing proper Conservative policies means “out Reforming Reform” is silly. Reform UK have failed to apply them. They would also have wider appeal. Taking on the vested interests and the bureaucratic inertia to deliver better services at lower cost would appeal to Labour and Lib Dem voters as well as those supporting Reform UK.
More important than how many councils the Conservative win next month is being able to demonstrate that where we are in power, we actually make a difference.