‘The good, the bad and the ugly!’ Nigel Farage’s three big tests REVEALED as Reform allies vow to confront roadblocks to No10
GB News met up with the big beasts from Reform UK to discuss the challenges facing Nigel Farage in Westminster and beyond
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Nigel Farage is preparing to confront a number of key challenges ahead of the General Election to prepare for power, Reform UK insiders have told GB News.
Reform UK is hoping to continue building on its momentum since the 2024 General Election, claiming victory in the Runcorn & Helsby by-election and snatching 677 council seats in May’s Local Elections.
More in Common’s latest MRP poll suggests that Reform would win the most seats if a national election was held today, winning 290 seats to put Farage just 36 seats short of an overall majority.
However, Reform insiders have been rather candid about the challenges facing Farage over the next four years and believe confronting the issues head on will help propel the party to power.
The first challenge comes as a direct result of the 2025 Local Elections, with Reform now controlling 10 councils outright and forming minority administrations in an additional three local authorities.
Reform UK went into May 1 promising to crackdown on wasteful spending through its newly founded Doge-inspired unit and remove diversity, equity and inclusion training.
But there has been a language shift among top dogs in Reform about what delivery is needed for the party to prove itself to the electorate.
“Delivery is critical, of course, and we will deliver in many ways but we will make mistakes,” Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice told GB News.
“We’ll be moving at pace but we’ve just got to be honest about why we took those decisions, what’s working, and if it’s not working, why. They want us to tell it how it is. The good, the bad and, occasionally, the ugly.”
A friend of Farage added: “Steady as she goes. Don’t make an absolute pig's ear of the councils that we’ve won - we don’t have to be brilliant, we just have to be solid and dependable.
“Nobody expects perfection. They expect us to work hard and speak out on the issues that annoy people - net zero, two-tier justice, DEI - speak up from small businesses and ordinary men and women of this country.”
READ IN FULL: EXCLUSIVE: Inside Reform's new HQ as Nigel Farage transforms party in 'exponential' power leap
However, chaotic resignations from short-lived councillors in now Reform-controlled Nottinghamshire and County Durham resulted in some immediate blows to Farage’s crusade.
Reform lost its Newark West division to the Conservatives by just eight votes - much to the glee of local Tory MP Robert Jenrick.
Meanwhile, Reform slumped into third place when the Liberal Democrats snatched Durham’s Benfieldside ward on the same night.
And the shock resignation of Warwickshire’s 65-year-old Reform council leader Rob Howard also raised alarm bells.
Howard, who quit over “health reasons”, was replaced by interim boss George Finch, 18, sparking a backlash from both Labour and the Tories.
LATEST REFORM UK STORIES:Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice
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Reform also faced fury after vowing to remove “political flags” from council building - keeping the Union Jack, cross of St George or county banners flying aloft.
A Pride flag row broke out at Shire Hall in Warwick after the county council’s CEO refused to remove the banner.
Despite some bumps in the road, Reform UK is now looking to put delivery at the front-and-centre of its second push to professionalise the party.
During a visit to Reform’s new HQ, GB News revealed that a “local government” unit will position itself as a key cornerstone in the office.
Zia Yusuf, who resigned as Reform chairman last month before returning to Farage’s fold just 48 hours, is spearheading much of the operation.
Yusuf’s Doge unit has already uncovered a number of alleged incidents of wasteful spending, including that Kent County Council spends £100million on working from home and forked out tens of thousands of pounds paying for migrants to go trampolining and bowling.
Kent County councillor Max Harrison vowed to address the challenge posed by power head-on.
He said: “We need to ensure that KCC is run as effectively and efficiently as possible.”
However, Harrison also believes that it is imperative to restore “common sense” and “decency”, which he claims has been eroded since Starmer was swept to power last year.
During a guided tour of the new HQ last week, Yusuf’s successor as Reform UK chairman, David Bull, also admitted that the party faces an uphill struggle to prepare for the next set of Local Elections.
LATEST MEMBERSHIP STORIES:“We’ve got to get 5,000 approved candidates, that works out at 9,000 or thereabouts through the doors,” the 56-year-old told the People’s Channel. “We’ve got to get 18 per day.”
Reform UK managed to field more candidates than any other party in the 2025 Local Elections, contesting 1630 out of 1,641 wards on May 1.
However, at least 60 of Reform’s 2025 candidates stood after defections from the Tory Party, less than a year after Farage made his direct pitch to existing Conservative councillors.
And the overall number of Reform councillors has jumped from 677 to 834 following both defectors and by-election wins.
The populist party performed markedly better compared to the 2024 Local Elections, when a mere 323 candidates were put up across 2,655 wards.
However, Bull also stressed that the vetting process must ensure capable candidates contest council and parliamentary seats.
GB News understands that Reform is preparing for two potential Westminster by-elections, learning from its victory in Runcorn & Helsby.
Speaking about what Reform can learn from May 1, Runcorn & Helsby MP Sarah Pochin told GB News that the party needs to learn from her victory to overcome the challenge of facing off against established parties with significantly more resources.
Pochin said: “We undoubtedly are the party that is giving this country hope. But we need to grow and our biggest challenge now is growing the infrastructure, the machine, the people that we need behind us, the volunteers that we need to go out and actually win successive by-elections.”
Despite going into the next stage of Reform’s plan to take power, Farage has faced and continues to face challenges on the road ahead.
LATEST NIGEL FARAGE STORIES:Rupert Lowe and Ben Habib
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Ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe and former deputy leader Ben Habib have both launched off-shoot groups - Restore Britain and Advance UK - to take the fight to Reform on the right.
Farage rejected suggestions that either pose a threat to Reform, adding: “I’m really sorry, but, you know, you get the odd nutter in politics.”
And the Reform UK leader previously told GB News that he would rather “eat razor blades” than let Lowe rejoin the party.
However, Reform UK chairman David Bull expressed his sadness about the fallout and instead insisted that the party needs “team players”.
James McMurdock, who entered the House of Commons as Reform UK MP for South Basildon & East Thurrock by just 98 votes, this week sparked yet another rift within the party’s ranks after removing the whip from himself after being accused of misusing £70,000 Covid contracts.
The 39-year-old father-of-four denies any wrongdoing but previously posed a problem for Farage when it was revealed that he had been convicted of assaulting an ex-girlfriend in 2006.
But Bull is looking to turn his attention to elections held in 2026, embarking on a UK-wide tour to connect directly with Reform’s 230,000-strong People’s Army.
“I want to make sure Scotland and Wales are right up there in terms of our thinking,” Bull explained after visiting Perth. “It’s a huge undertaking but we’re definitely making waves.”
While Reform’s strong performance in last month’s Hamilton by-election might not have been enough to break-up the battle between Labour and the Scottish National Party, Farage is witnessing an exponential surge in support north of the border.
The campaign, markedly different to Farage’s previous Scotland trips as Ukip leader, sparked heated exchanges with Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar amid allegations of racism in a Reform campaign video.
However, opinion polls suggest Reform could supplant Labour in terms of vote share as the biggest opponent to the SNP.
And ex-Tory MP Ross Thomson became the latest Conservative to defect to Reform after admitting he had been considering the switch for years.
Thomson told the People’s Channel: “Reform’s already causing tremors on Scottish politics.
“As we become focused on the upcoming election, I’m convinced we will cause an earthquake at Holyrood.”
Meanwhile, Labour’s stranglehold over Wales, which dates back to 1922, is currently under threat from both Reform UK and Plaid Cymru.
Sir Keir Starmer in Wales
PAFind Out Now has Reform two-points ahead ahead of next year’s Welsh Parliament Election, while YouGov handed Plaid a five per cent advantage.
Sir Keir Starmer and Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan went on the attack at the recent Welsh Labour conference in Llandudno.
The Prime Minister accused Farage of “taking people for fools”, while Morgan sparked outrage after claiming Reform poses a “threat” to the Welsh way of life.
However, a Reform source explained why Farage is making Wales his “top” priority
“After 26 years of Labour running Wales,” the Welshman inside Reform said, “what do we have to show for it?
“Record-breaking NHS waiting lists, collapsing education standards, a stagnant economy, and communities that feel ignored and let down.
“Labour’s priorities are all wrong, more interested in pushing woke ideology and vanity projects than fixing the basics.”
And there remains a focus on Reform’s efforts in England following a delay to some of the Local Election contests scheduled for this May.
Essex, perhaps the spiritual birthplace of Eurosceptic populism in Britain, is expected to finally be up for grabs.
Reform’s Basildon & Billericay branch boss Tom Allison is already looking to mobilise around 200 local Reform members.
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“These are people who have never gone to a political event, let alone a Reform event before,” Allison said. “
Reform is already picking up council by-elections in Essex - including in Canvey, Frinton and Wickford.
“We’re taking votes off of different parties,” Allison explained. “Tory areas in Essex have fallen and so have Labour-run wards in areas like Basildon.”
On a national level, Bull believes that so-called “shy Reformers” have been coming out of the woodwork.
“They weren’t necessarily open about how they were going to vote but now they can see other people coming towards the party,” Bull claimed.
“There’s no longer that societal shame. We’re reaching a tipping point and before it would have been difficult for us to win a majority in the House of Commons but we’re now at that inflection point.”
Polling guru Scarlett Maguire told GB News that Reform’s growth had certainly laid the groundwork for this year’s surge in the 2024 General Election and might not have reached its ceiling just yet.
“There’s comfort in numbers now,” Maguire explained. “People like a winner, they naturally gravitate towards a winner. And they’re much more likely to be put at ease because now it’s so much less taboo to vote Reform.”
However, the Merlin Strategies founder also warned that Farage now faces a challenge after winning large swathes of seats in the 2025 Local Elections.
“They don’t want to end up where Labour are,” Maguire said. “It’s interesting that Reform’s slogan now is similar to Labour’s but if you’re talking about how the country is broken then you need to make sure that if, and it’s a big if, you get into power that you’re now delivering.”