Reform UK Don't Care

Reform promised £150bn in savings to fund massive tax cuts and spending increases. The Institute for Fiscal Studies - one of the UK's most respected independent economic bodies - forensically dismantled these claims.

A government that cannot produce a credible budget in opposition is unlikely to produce one in power.

Reform presents itself as a party for working people, but their tax policy tells a different story. Analysis found that their plan to raise the higher-rate tax threshold from £50,271 to £70,000 would hand the top 10% of earners a windfall of nearly £6,000 - vastly outweighing any gains for low earners.

Their manifesto was also criticised for threatening the rights of disabled people and posing safeguarding risks to benefit claimants.

Reform swept into local government in May 2025, winning control of 12 councils. It was billed as proof of concept. The evidence since then has been damning.

Broken promises on council tax: Despite pledging to freeze or cut council tax, Worcestershire faces a £73 million shortfall and is considering a 10% rise - double the normal maximum.

Cuts to care: Lancashire is consulting on closing five care homes and five day centres. Meanwhile, Nottinghamshire spent £75,000 on Union Jack flags.

Basic governance failures: ITV News found Reform councils had "achieved very little." In Nottinghamshire, meetings were cancelled, councillors didn't know their own statutory duties, and council officers had to publicly correct false claims.

Mass walkouts: According to a continuously updated tracker by Lib Dem peer and polling expert Mark Pack, Reform has lost at least 65 councillors to expulsions, suspensions and resignations since May 2025 - plus two MPs. The reasons range from racism and criminal conduct to, in one case, a row about clipboards. In Cornwall, the leader and deputy leader both resigned, accusing national Reform of "heavy-handed interference." In Staffordshire, the council leader himself was expelled by his own party for racism.

Warwickshire in chaos: Reform's newly elected Warwickshire council leader resigned after just one month, overwhelmed by the role. His replacement was an 18-year-old - the youngest county council leader in modern history - put in charge of a local authority with £1.5bn in assets and a £500m annual budget. Officers were instructed to simplify briefing documents, and senior staff reported that strategic decisions were being deferred or avoided entirely.

Paying themselves more while charging residents more: In March 2026 - less than a year after council leader Linden Kemkaran pledged in her maiden speech to cut councillor allowances by 5% - Reform-led Kent County Council voted 45 to 22 to award its members a 3.8% pay rise, taking basic allowances to £16,885 and the leader's own allowance to £55,526. This came in the same period the council raised council tax for residents by 3.99%. A Green Party councillor described it as "inappropriate timing and bad optics."

Far-right figures have openly admitted attempting to infiltrate Reform, with one describing their strategy as using the party as a "wrecking ball." A Reform MP, James McMurdock, resigned in July 2025 amid reports he had accepted £70,000 in Covid loans he was not entitled to.

The Chris Parry scandal: In March 2026, Reform suspended its Hampshire mayoral candidate, retired Rear Admiral Chris Parry, following a series of deeply offensive social media posts. Hours after an arson attack on ambulances belonging to Hatzola - a Jewish community charity - Parry likened Shomrim, a Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch group, to "Islamists on horseback" and described them as "cosplayers." Labour had repeatedly called on Farage to remove Parry months earlier, after he had already courted controversy by telling British-born Cabinet minister David Lammy to "go home to the Caribbean." Farage took no action until the antisemitic remarks finally forced his hand. Labour Party chair Anna Turley said: "Nigel Farage should have done the right thing and booted Chris Parry out of Reform UK months ago."

The Cameo scandal: In March 2026, a Guardian investigation reviewed over 4,000 personalised videos Farage had sold through the Cameo platform - earning him hundreds of thousands of pounds. It found he had endorsed an alleged neo-Nazi event, used a far-right slogan more than 20 times, made sexist remarks about left-wing politicians, and referenced antisemitic conspiracy theories. Farage subsequently paused his Cameo activity. When asked on camera whether he would stop making the videos, he replied: "I decline to comment on that." Reform UK's defence was that "at that scale, the occasional mistake can occur."

Despite leading in voting intention polls, Reform's support evaporates when voters are asked whether they'd trust them in power. YouGov found that just 24% of Britons believe a Farage-led government would do a good job - with 49% expecting it to do a bad job, including 38% anticipating a very bad job.

A separate Ipsos poll found 58% of Britons disagree that Reform are ready to form a government at all. Among 18–24 year olds, only 14% trust Reform to represent people like them. Notably, Reform's poll lead has already shrunk - from +15 points over Labour in November 2025 to +8 points by January 2026 - suggesting their momentum is far from guaranteed.

Meanwhile, Farage's personal ratings are at their lowest point in a year. YouGov's March 2026 favourability tracker found that two thirds of Britons (66%) view him unfavourably, giving him a net rating of -39 - his worst since March 2025. Crucially, that decline is sharpest among 2024 Conservative voters: last August they viewed him favourably by 54% to 39%; by March 2026, that had flipped, with 53% now viewing him negatively.