Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
TeaHe warned one of his fellow councilors, Lyndon Kemkaran, Improvementon the leader of Kent County Council (KCC)This might be something voters will have to get used to Nigel Farage Becomes Prime Minister.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to suck it up if you don’t like it,” she said in a chaotic Zoom meeting.
During the taping of the video conference, published for the first time GuardianCLLR Kemkaran also said a very relevant thing which should be concerned Mr Faraz and other senior figures in the reform.
“Let’s not forget, we are the shop window at KCC. People are watching us, they’re judging us every single minute of every day. Nigel knows this. He’s super aware that we are the dominant council.”
The problem with the party is that, if the party were a shop, it increasingly looks like one of those “everything for £1” shops on a high street, where the once great flagship stores (Tories and Labour) are now mostly closed.
The Reform are still largely ahead in the polls (32 per cent against the Tories’ 17 per cent and Labour’s 15 per cent according to Find Out Now) but cracks are beginning to appear which may raise some doubts over whether its huge lead is sustainable.
Kent’s nasty video coincides with new issues surrounding people close to Mr Farage and the arrival of a far-right, anti-abortion, Christian nationalist adviser to the reform leader.
Crack 1: Proving yourself in government
Let’s start in Kent, where Reform promised last May to reduce council tax with its new Elon Musk-Inspired Doge Units.
It said a lot about those DOGE units run by former party president Zia Yusuf, that they were recruiting more online video experts than accountants.
But Kent was the first council he took over with serious expectations that he would cut spending.
Now in the video, Cllr Kemkarn admits she is fighting for £2.5bn of cuts and will still have to increase council tax.
One of his hopes is to increase it to less than the 5 percent maximum, which he told his fellow councilors was the main goal. People’s council tax bills are not going down significantly.
It’s a reminder of Lincolnshire’s new mayor’s pledge to sack diversity officers Andrea Jenkinswhom I met Following his election the news came that the County Council did not appoint anyone.
Reform took control of 10 councils last May, appointing an 18-year-old to lead one of them. With low turnout expected, they could be in charge in Wales after the next elections and win many other councils.
But the experience so far is that governing and running is a difficult task. Easy political slogans and simple solutions are much more difficult to implement than to say them.
By 2029, Reform will have a record of governance for voters to see. So far it’s not looking good.
Crack 2: Dependence on Nigel Farage
At Reform’s conference in September Mr Faraz publicly mocked the idea that the party is a “one-man team”. At the time he pointed to a row of football shirts with the names of other prominent party figures such as Zia Youssef, Dame Andrea Jenkins and Richard Tice emblazoned on the back.
But there was only one shirt for sale at the shop – which had Mr Faraz’s name on the back.
The fact is that Reform is the Nigel Farage party.
Political opponents in the run-up to the 2024 general election and last year’s local elections told how voters would turn up on their doorsteps, telling them: “I’m voting for Nigel.”
It was never a vote for reform. His abundant skills and personality have propelled him and his party forward on the path to national power.
But while Mr Faraz is a strength, he is also a weakness. Now a microscope is being put on those closest to them and those around them. The picture is not that pretty.
This weekend it was revealed that Mr Farage’s French partner Laure Ferrari is at the center of a fraud investigation in Brussels.
The investigation relates to his former role as executive director of the Institute for Direct Democracy in Europe (IDDE), a think tank based in the Belgian capital, whose auditors refused to sign off on the spending of hundreds of thousands of euros of public funds in 2016.
But it’s not just about him. Reform’s former Welsh leader Nathan Gill, a long-time friend and ally of Mr Farage, was recently found guilty of taking bribes linked to Russia. Gill, of Llangefni, Anglesey, pleaded guilty last month to eight counts of bribery between December 6, 2018 and July 18, 2019.
While some, including pollster and commentator Matthew Goodwin, believe this is simply an attempt to sling mud at Farage, eventually, if there is enough of it, the mud starts to stick.
Politicians embroiled in scandals struggle to garner the public support needed to win. Ask Marine Le Pen in France. But without Mr Farage, support for reform is likely to wane.
Crack 3: Policy Void
At their conference in Birmingham in September, the corporate advisers attending Reform’s get-together were impressed by their enthusiasm and energy, but they were all worried by the policy vacuum.
Now we’re seeing this void filled, and in a way that’s already raising eyebrows.
In a few weeks, Right-wing MP Danny KrugerAn anti-abortion Christian nationalist has joined Reform and has been given the role of working on Reform’s policies for the next election.
This weekend theologian James Orr – a similar anti-abortion, Christian nationalist – formally joined the party and became an adviser to Mr Farage.
Two highly intelligent men have seen a void and perhaps an opportunity to shape a party with the kind of extreme social conservatism they believe in and that is seen in Hungary with Viktor Orban.
Not surprisingly, Orr considers asylum seekers coming to Britain as “invaders”.
It is no surprise that both are close to the MAGA movement in America and especially Vice President JD Vance who shares their views.
While there is certainly a place for such a party in Britain, the question is whether it is a winning formula.
A narrow perspective is unlikely to have the broad appeal needed to win in Britain.
Crack 4: A Shaky Alliance
Reform is popular at the moment, largely because the two traditional main parties, Labor and the Tories, are at historic low levels of support.
But those 32 percent or more who are consistently voting are made up of a very diverse group of voters whose views often clash.
Furthermore, there are about 10 percent of people who either rarely or never vote, so they cannot be trusted to go to the polls.
The experience of the Reform Conference was enough to show that some group on the right or left side of politics would be disappointed.
In the conference, Independent The network of ultra-wealthy donors spoke to a former Tory donor who once gave money to the Conservatives.
He described the reforms as a breath of fresh air and a party that would finally free Britain for a very low-tax, zero employment rights, Singapore-style economy.
soon after, Independent Had a chat with a Reform member who is a tube train driver in London. Unlike the millionaire businessman, he was hoping for reform by nationalizing everything and raising taxes. In fact, he was a member of the RMT union and was planning to go on strike the next day.
British politics is used to broadening the churches in its main parties, but the gap between these positions is unbridgeable.
While Mr Farage can point to the left and right and hope to unite them on issues such as immigration and culture war politics, this will only go so far and could cause problems in the next general election.