Nigel Farage has promised that Reform UK’s tanks are “on the lawns of the red wall” as he openly targeted Labour in a local elections speech heavy on Trump-like rhetoric but light on policy detail.
For his biggest set-piece event yet in a campaign in which his party hopes to win a slew of councillors in northern England and Midlands, Farage spoke at a working men’s club in County Durham – very deliberate symbolism in what was the Sedgefield constituency of Tony Blair.
“Reform are parking their tanks on the lawns of the red wall,” Farage told Reform activists and candidates in Newton Aycliffe. “Today is the first day I’ve said that, but I absolutely mean it, and we’re here, and we’re here to stay.
“If you are considering voting Conservative in these areas, you are wasting your vote, because if you want a party that can beat Labour, it is now very clearly Reform.”
Much of Farage’s speech was based on the idea that Reform UK had replaced Labour as the party of working people, and would reindustrialise declining regions with support for industries linked to steel and fossil fuels.
He cited polling produced for the party showing he was outperforming Keir Starmer in red-wall areas.
In another echo of Donald Trump, Farage littered his speech with culture war references, including a condemnation of recruitment policies that he said disadvantaged white people.
“We see recruitment policies in police forces, recruitment policies in the NHS, designed to put ethnic minorities to the top of the list against white people with more history in this country,” Farage said, calling the situation “a disgrace”.
He added: “We do not believe in DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] and that madness in any way at all, but it’s all part of the north London human rights lawyers being completely out of touch with ordinary folk.”
Condemning the “cultural decline” of the UK, Farage reiterated Reform’s intent to leave the European Convention on Human Rights and repeal the UK’s Human Rights Act, saying this would curb the influence of a “somewhat corrupted judiciary”.
Despite a cross-party Commons report this week dismissing the idea of “two-tier” policing during riots last summer, Farage repeated his claim that there had been “the most appalling cover-up” after the Southport killings that sparked the disorder.
Ignoring polls suggesting Trump was increasingly unpopular with UK voters, Farage made explicit references to the US president’s agenda, promising a “British equivalent of Doge” – Elon Musk’s department of government efficiency – in any councils won by Reform on 1 May.
In the speech and in a lengthy Q&A with reporters, Farage was vague about any specific policies, including how he would finance a repeal of the national insurance increase as well as changes to farm inheritance tax and the means-testing of winter fuel payments, all while raising the income tax threshold from £12,500 a year to £20,000.
Farage simply indicated that “the reindustrialisation of Britain” would “within a couple of years produce tens of thousands of well paid, in fact in many cases highly paid, jobs” that would boost growth. Extra money would also come from abolishing regulators and quangos “who do so much to stifle business”, he said.
Having backed the nationalisation of British Steel, Farage said a Reform government would aim to forge “a good partnership with the unions” – with the exception of teaching unions.
He said the National Education Union wanted to poison children’s minds “about everything to do with this country, its history, what it stood for and what it has fought for”.
He claimed union members were “telling kids that Reform is a racist party, Reform is a bad party, and kids that speak out against that face disciplinary action”.
