Nothing but broken promises, council tax rises and infighting among its councillors.
It’s approaching a year since Reform took control of a number of councils across the country, promising to do things differently, to cut taxes and deliver for ordinary folk.
In the May 2025 local elections, Reform UK took control of or became the biggest party in 14 local authorities, further taking control of two mayoralties. It won 677 council seats.
And yet what has it delivered in the months since? Nothing but broken promises, council tax rises and infighting among its councillors.
Anti-extremist campaign group Hope not Hate has produced a report on the party’s year in power.
It highlights how Reform promised tax cuts during the May 2025 local elections, however Reform run councils have delivered council tax rises instead. In Worcestershire, the Reform-controlled council pushed through a tax rise of 9% that was so large the government needed to authorise it.
And the party has far from professionalised its operation, according to Hope not Hate, almost one in ten Reform councillors elected last May — 63 of 677 — have now quit.
A significant number of the party’s candidates have also been exposed for having racist views as well as engaging in criminal behaviour, and in one case, threatening to shoot Keir Starmer.
Hope not Hate also highlights how Reform run councils have cut much-needed public services, including care homes in Derbyshire, a council tax relief scheme in County Durham, and health advice programmes in Lincolnshire.
Reform’s pledges to cut “woke waste” with an Elon Musk-inspired DOGE unit have also failed.
Several senior Reform UK county councillors are promoting climate denial in both official council chambers and public communications. In Lincolnshire, which has suffered extensive flooding, council leader Sean Matthews claimed “the influence of man on the climate is so minimal”.
Darren Grimes, deputy leader at Durham County Council, has questioned the phenomenon of climate change on his social media. Durham’s council leader, Andrew Husband, has amplified climate denial narratives. At the national level, prominent Reform leaders like Richard Tice have promoted climate denial on national television.
In September 2025, Kent County Council Reform UK councillors voted to rescind the climate emergency declaration using a motion calling on the council to be “open-minded but sceptical of anthropogenic climate change” and to “welcome open and inclusive debate on the topic”.
It’s been a pretty disastrous year for Reform’s first year in local government.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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