Nigel Farage’s Reform UK stormed into local government in May 2025, winning hundreds of seats across England and seizing control of county councils once thought impregnable. It was hailed as a political earthquake, a populist breakthrough that would reshape local democracy. We have already taken a close look at what happened in Kent where, as […]
Reform UK
The bells ring out as Reform’s Xmas party is cancelled
’Tis the season to be jolly – unless you’re Reform UK’s Deputy leader Richard Tice, who recently discovered that Croydon’s Grand Sapphire Hotel has more spine than his party’s vetting committee. The venue cancelled Reform’s Christmas knees‑up after locals pointed out that “festive cheer” doesn’t usually involve Lee Anderson shouting about migrants over turkey and […]
Former Brexit Party MEP denies taking Russian bribes
A former Brexit Party MEP, whose name features in messages between the convicted former Welsh Reform Party leader Nathan Gill and his Russian handler, has denied taking bribes David Coburn, the former UKIP Party leader in Scotland and later a Brexit Party MEP, was approached at his French chateau by the BBC and asked about […]
Day of reckoning for Reform UK’s Russian agent
Disgraced former Reform UK Wales leader Nathan Gill was today sentenced at the Old Bailey to ten and a half years years in prison, after admitting eight counts of bribery linked to a covert Russian influence operation inside the European Parliament. Once viewed as a rising figure on the British populist right, Gill pleaded guilty […]
Matthew Goodwin and Reform UK’s push into British campuses
Reform UK’s decision to appoint political scientist Matthew Goodwin as Honorary President of its newly launched student organisation, Students4Reform, marks a significant moment in the party’s evolution. Announced last week on Goodwin’s own social media and in subsequent press coverage, the move is more than symbolic. It signals Reform’s intent to anchor its youth wing […]
How Reform’s ‘shop window’ council brought chaos to Kent
When Reform UK swept to power at Kent County Council last May, the victory was heralded as a populist revolution. After decades of Conservative dominance, Reform’s 57-seat majority promised a new era of straight-talking efficiency and common-sense governance. Six months later, that promise has curdled into farce. Leaked recordings, mass expulsions, and paralysed committees have […]
Unholy alliance as Reform UK in Exeter cosy up to Britain First
Reform UK’s Exeter branch is under growing pressure to explain itself as some its most prominent local figures are associating – both online and on the ground – with the openly fascist Britain First. Last Saturday Exeter witnessed the first far-right mobilisation in the city since the English Defence League’s appearance in 2013. Though the […]
Reform’s Russian ‘asset’ – the Kremlin shadow over Nigel Farage
On 26 September, former Welsh Brexit Party MEP and Reform UK official Nathan Gill pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to eight counts of bribery for accepting payments for making pro-Russian statements in the European Parliament both on television and in public forums. He faces sentencing in November, and is widely expected to go to […]
UKIP rolls out red carpet for Reform defector – and psychic readings for £14.99
Cue the celebrations at UKIP HQ – they have a local councillor. The first for some time. Well, kind of. They haven’t actually won an election. Nor have they managed to slip a candidate into a uncontested election so they can take a council seat without the inconvenience of having to persuade a majority of […]
Reform UK selects UKIP branch officer as election candidate
The Reform UK vetting system appears to have suffered another glitch, but not the usual type where nutjob extremists are given a clean bill of health to stand as election candidates. In this case, Reform has selected a man officially listed as a serving officer in UKIP as a council election candidate. Nick Wood is […]
Reform UK election candidate attends neo-nazi Summer camp
Searchlight can reveal that a Reform UK election candidate is actively involved with a neo-Nazi organisation. One of their most prominent county council candidates recently attended a Summer camp in Lancashire run by Patriotic Alternative. In this year’s Lancashire County Council election, Portuguese businessman Joe Custodio was Reform candidate for Preston North West. But a […]
The Resistible Rise of Reform UK
The May election results were a warning, if one was needed, of the danger of an insurgent Reform UK. Sarah Pochin won the Runcorn and Helsey by-election for Reform with 38.7% of the vote. In the local council elections, Reform’s share of the vote hit 31%, enabling it to gain 677 out of the 1,650 […]
Farage, Reform UK, and the Shadow of the Kremlin
As Reform UK rides a surprising wave of electoral support across parts of England, the party’s populist rhetoric and its leader’s controversial foreign policy stances deserve renewed scrutiny. Nigel Farage, the face of Reform and the prime political figure synonymous with Brexit, has long portrayed himself as a crusader against establishment politics. But his pronouncements […]
Local elections 2025 – Farage surges and far right turn on Homeland
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has won control of at least seven councils in this week’s local elections. A party that often relies on dog-whistle racism and xenophobia will now try to control large swathes of England. These results make grim reading for anti-fascists and are an indictment of both Tory opportunism and Labour cowardice. Indulging […]
Birmingham rally makes clear the challenge of Nigel Farage and Reform
Nigel Farage arrived on the stage of the Reform UK rally in the Arena Birmingham on a JCB accompanied by a live band, dry ice and to a rapturous standing ovation. A jubilant Farage claimed that 10,000 people were in attendance (Friday 28 March 2025). Sitting in the auditorium that night his claim was not […]
Tice sliced and diced as Farage and Yusuf tighten grip on Reform UK
Stung by repeated accusations – not least from former deputy leader Ben Habib, and indeed Searchlight – that Reform UK was not in any normal sense a political party, despotic leader Nigel Farage eventually issued a promise to democratise the organisation and put power in the hands of its claimed 200,000 ‘members’ (not that it […]