Farage hails Reform win in Staffordshire and vows to cut council diversity and climate roles

Nigel Farage stands in front of a large group of Reform UK councillors and supporters beneath blooming pink cherry blossom trees, with many raising their arms in celebration on a sunny day at Stafford Showground.

Nigel Farage says Staffordshire County Council’s new Reform UK leaders will slash climate change and diversity policy, describing the authority as one of the ‘wokest’ in the country.

The party leader returned to Stafford Showground last night, just days after delivering his final campaign speech at the venue on the eve of Thursday’s local elections.

Reform candidates won 49 of the 62 seats in Staffordshire, recording an historic landslide victory in the county. Mr Farage congratulated the newly-elected Reform county councillors, who quaffed champagne in bright sunshine during the celebration event at the showground.

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He promised a ‘different culture’ at the county council under Reform, one focused on performing ‘basic functions’ for taxpayers. And Mr Farage suggested that council staff working in climate change policy should ‘go look for a different job’. He said:

“There will be a very different culture in the way this county council is run. It became of the wokest county councils in the country under the Tories. It won’t be like that with us.

Staffordshire needs mega savings and we will make savings. How big those savings will be I can’t predict right now, but there will be a re-prioritisation on what a county council is there to do.”

Nigel Farage addresses a line of newly elected Reform UK councillors and supporters during an outdoor speech at Stafford Showground, with cherry blossoms and a white marquee visible in the background.

Reform’s victory brought to an end 16 years of Conservative rule at the county council, with the Tories being reduced from 53 to 10 councillors.

Mr Farage claimed the local elections signalled ‘the death of the Conservative Party’, and said the day had been the ‘most significant’ in his 30-year political career. He added:

“It’s phenomenal. I knew we’d do well. I thought we had a chance of largest party, but not within my dreams did I think we could become the party in power. So it’s a big challenge but a big opportunity too.”

James Du Pavey - Stone

1 comment

  • This will end badly, especially for people without money and luck. Climate change from the build-up of carbon dioxide is real. It is already having serious impacts around the world and locally. Among those impacts, heatwaves (the young, old and sick are particularly vulnerable) and flooding. There are things we can do – at a community and societal level – to make those less deadly. But if we label 19th century physics (and acceptance of carbon dioxide build-up as a potential problem goes back to then) as “woke” then the preparations won’t happen, and the poor and unlucky will be hit harder and sooner than would otherwise have occurred. (This is not to say Staffordshire Council was doing a good job on this – they clearly weren’t).

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