Uh oh. There’s trouble in paradise this evening as it has emerged that 12 Reform UK councillors are set to quit over Nigel Farage’s leadership. As reported by the Guardian, it transpires that the mass exodus could begin as early as tonight, with the announcement that the group intend to resign en mass timed to take the shine off Nige’s Surrey conference.
The group of Derbyshire councillors have, reports note, alleged that Reform was being run in an ‘autocratic manner’ and blasted Farage of ‘disloyalty’ to long-term members. While the party’s five MPs are staying put, the loss of these councillors will notably dent the party’s local authority representation. The outgoing 12 currently hold two district council seats, nine town council seats and five parish council seats. More than that, one of the disillusioned councillors includes Alex Stephenson, who was runner up in Amber Valley in the July election – taking almost a third of the vote. Crikey.
In a statement reported by the Grauniad, the group has lamented they could not continue on under the Reform banner in ‘good conscience’, adding:
We believe that the current party management is either incompetent or malevolent, and we have lost all confidence in the leadership and its structures.
The revelation comes less than a week after Twitter CEO Elon Musk engaged in a bit of Farage-bashing online, with the tech billionaire tweeted that Reform needed new leadership as Nige ‘doesn’t have what it takes’. The party’s former deputy leader Ben Habib waded in too, writing scathingly: ‘The truth is Elon Musk has seen right through Nigel Farage. Thank you.’ Rather interestingly, the outgoing councillor group has shown support for Habib, who they described as the man who ‘truly represents the vision and values that drew us to Reform UK’ and lamented his being ‘unceremoniously dumped’ from the party.
For Reform’s part, party chairman Zia Yusuf has taken to Twitter to claim that ‘the leader of this group of “councillors” was suspended weeks ago’ over candidate nomination issues, adding that ‘several of these “councillors” are illegitimate and new elections must be held’. Farage himself told the Guardian this week that the resignations were from an ‘out of control branch’.
This is dishonest from the Guardian.
— Zia Yusuf (@ZiaYusufUK) January 10, 2025
They failed to publish @Nigel_Farage’s full statement to them.
The leader of this group of “councillors” was suspended weeks ago by Reform for:
1) nominating candidates that failed vetting.
2) fraudulently nominating candidates with an… https://t.co/9qjBINkAkL
The Reform leader is due to give a big speech to party supporters in the south-east this evening – and so the timing to tonight’s announcement could hardly be worse. Will Farage address his mutineers? Stay tuned…
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