Reform faces local backlash while Farage rows back on tax-cut pledge
Reform UK has shed dozens of councillors since May while facing financial realities in power. As turbulence grows, Nigel Farage signalled no “substantial” tax cuts now, pivoting to welfare reform and energy policy.
What you need to know
🔹 Reform UK has lost 36 councillors since May 2025, signalling growing instability.
🔹 Infighting in Kent and defections in Cornwall have undermined Reform’s local control.
🔹 Then, Nigel Farage abandoned his £90bn tax cuts, adopting a more fiscally cautious economic stance.
🔹 Despite turmoil, Reform still leads national polls but faces credibility tests in local governance.
R eform UK has lost councillors at an unusually high rate since its breakthrough in the May 2025 local elections, according to new tallies and expert commentary.
A PoliticsHome analysis on 31 October reported 36 councillors gone in six months through expulsions, suspensions, defections, and resignations, shrinking the party’s tally on the 23 councils that voted in May from 677 to 651 by late October.
Professor Tony Travers of LSE London called the early attrition “an unusual number and rapidly growing, and so soon after Reform did so well in May this year.”
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