As I said in my speech to a Reform rally not so very long ago, when we win on May 1st that will not be the end but the beginning and now indeed the age of Reform UK has begun and what those councils which we control do between now and the next general election will determine our fate when Keir Starmer is finally forced to face the country.
What happened last week was nothing short of a revolution, a quiet, very British revolution. In short, the people rejected the parties which have dominated our politics for over a hundred years and looked for answers elsewhere. Reform went from controlling no councils to controlling ten, along the way taking 674 seats, two mayoralties and a by-election.
A gloomy Keir Starmer announces, “I get it”. So, it having been got, what does he intend to do? He himself made that clear enough: he intends to continue on the same road, only further and faster. His logic appears to be “the people have rejected us, so we will give them more of the same”.
No wonder those same people are beginning to believe that the lunatics have taken over the asylum. Meanwhile, the Tories look irrelevant.
As I wrote on my Substack over the weekend, I recently challenged two very senior Conservatives at a debate at the Cambridge Union to name one single original idea that Kemi Badenoch had produced, and the answer was a shaming silence.
The lunatics will try and foist illegal migrants on Reform councils but voters aren't stupid - Ann WiddecombeGetty Images
Meanwhile, the boats carry on coming … and coming. Almost daily, a fresh collection of illegal migrants arrive on our shores to be welcomed and put in hotels.
It is not going to reassure a worried population if, instead, they are put in houses, scattered throughout the community. Yet that appears to be all Keir Starmer can offer while the Conservatives still bang on about the Rwanda scheme, despite having failed to put it into effect while in office.
Reform alone offers a comprehensive answer: automatically refuse all asylum claims from anybody who has reached us via a safe country; turn the boats round; make deportations a separate ministerial responsibility; house those who do get through in secure reception centres until deportation.
Where possible, we will reach agreements, as Britain did with Albania, for other countries to accept their nationals back immediately, and we will cease all financial arrangements with France, as the French have done nothing in return for payments so far. So what can mere councillors do? They can resist any attempt to use local hotels, going through the courts if necessary. They can oppose the use of houses of multiple occupation.
Meanwhile, they can also get rid of all Diversity, Equality and Inclusion posts and spend the money on potholes instead. They can and must carry out immediate audits to eliminate waste.
And Reform HQ can make sure the world knows about it. It won’t be easy. A large number of our councillors are completely new to the job, but a large number of Labour MPs were new to the job in 2024. When Blair won in 1997, most of his front bench had no ministerial experience whatever and nor did he. What counts is the agenda and the will. Reform has both.
We can expect an attack from left, right and centre. The government will almost certainly try to foist illegal immigrants onto Reform Councils, but the electorate is not stupid. There will be pacts, both formal and informal. Some officers will be obstructive. The press will be hostile in places. There will be the usual falling out and the occasional scandal, as there is for any party. And all that will be a test of our will and our nerve.
If we keep both, we really can be running the country in 2029.
