‘There’s more to come!’ Inside Reform UK’s overlooked campaign ahead of key election test as top Tories switch to support Farage

Internal polling of UK voters, conducted for Reform UK, shows a staggering 40 per cent of those who voted Tory on July 4 were open to backing Farage but were held back by Sunak’s warnings of a Labour “supermajority”.

Voters were also fearful about the perception that Reform UK could not win in their area, only handing another seat to Starmer’s Labour.

Despite millions of voters fearing a Labour landslide, Reform UK returned five MPs with 4.1 million votes. The party also trailed in second in another 98 seats and put up a fight in dozens of three-horse contests with the Tories and Labour.

As MPs fixate on events in Westminster, Reform UK look to turn their attention away from the Mother of All Parliaments.

Chairman Zia Yusuf is looking to establish 120 “pilot” local branches to enable the populist party to mount a serious ground campaign.

Speaking to GB News, Yusuf said: “Every week, we see momentum building, with new highs in the polls, membership surging to new records, continued growth in donations and the roll-out of a campaign winning machine.

“Under Nigel Farage’s leadership, we are building a local branch infrastructure across the UK, with the first priority being the thousands of local election candidates next year.”

Reform UK is intending on contesting many of the 21 county councils, Doncaster’s Metropolitan Borough and nine unitary authorities holding polls on May 1, 2025.

A particular focus for the populist party at county level will be in Essex, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Nottinghamshire, with Doncaster and the Isle of Wight also potentially proving fruitful.

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Reform UK will look to field hundreds more candidates than it managed to put up in 2024.

Farage’s party put up just 323 candidates across 2,655 wards, contesting just 12 per cent of seats.

The figure was much lower than the 62 per cent contested by the Greens, 68 per cent challenged by the Liberal Democrats and the more than nine-in-10 wards with candidates from both the Tories and Labour.

However, Reform UK managed to pick up two wards earlier this year after making inroads in Havant on May 2.

The result added to the six wards won by Reform UK on Derby City Council in 2023.

Despite the limited victories at a local level, the populist party has managed to inflate its representation by courting councillors to defect.

Ashfield MP Lee Anderson this morning released a video showing Bolsover District Councillor Carol Wood joining Reform after serving as the Tory group’s leader in Dennis Skinner’s former patch.

It came just hours after South Basildon & East Thurrock MP James McMurdock announced the defection of Cllr Alex Anderson.

All 49 of Thurrock’s unitary wards will go up for grabs next year, with McMurdock vowing to “seize this moment” by enlisting support in the local area.

Local defections might not make the headlines in SW1 but with Southend Councillors Tony Cox and Darryl Jones joining over the weekend there is growing appetite for Reform ahead of the local elections.

Wales has also witnessed a number of defections after independent councillors Alan Slade, David Thomas and Jason O’Connell crossed the floor in Gwent.

However, Anderson revealed there is not a concerted effort by Reform UK to win over disaffected councillors.

“There is no campaign at all,” Anderson told GB News. “Councillors are contacting us on a regular basis but they all have to be vetted to ensure they are of the highest quality and meet all of our high standards.”