With the London local elections approaching, I am going to make a prediction. Reform UK, the party I lead, is going to surprise a few people in the capital next Thursday. Yes, the usual experts will admit, those Reform upstarts might do well next week up in the rest of England, or in Wales and Scotland. But, they reassure themselves, London will be different.
Well, I beg to differ. Unlike the pundits and other party leaders, I have spent considerable time campaigning around London in recent months — talking to ordinary Londoners from Havering to Croydon.
And guess what? It turns out that the hard-working people who live in our capital share many of the same concerns as the other citizens of alarm-clock Britain.
Londoners are worried about the cost-of-living crisis and about how to pay their energy bills. They want to know why they pay more and more in national and local taxes, yet seem to get less and less in return.
They are concerned about the way that uncontrolled immigration has changed their communities and worsened social problems, from the housing crisis to NHS queues. They are unhappy about thousands of undocumented young men who came here illegally in small boats being housed at taxpayers’ expense and left free to roam London’s streets.
Many Londoners feel their city has become almost lawless, with everyday crimes such as phone theft, burglary and shoplifting effectively decriminalised and mobs of youths allowed to run riot down their high streets. Many are also concerned about our precious green belt, and the failure of London councils to protect it properly.
Fixing broken local councils
And more than anything, the message I have heard from the people of London is that they are fed up with being taken for granted and betrayed by the old political parties. Fourteen years of Conservative government broke Britain. Almost two years of Keir Starmer’s Labour government has only made things worse.
That is why our appeal to Londoners — vote Reform for real change in London and vote Reform to get Starmer out — is receiving a far wider hearing than many of those experts expected.
We will be highly competitive in the outer London boroughs I have visited on this campaign, such as Bexley, Bromley, Havering, Redbridge, Barking and Dagenham and Croydon. But don’t write off inner London, either. There are Reform UK voters across the capital.
Yes, unlike every other region in England, 10 years ago London voted to remain in the 2016 EU referendum. Nevertheless, I will always remember that more Londoners voted to leave the EU than voted to make Sadiq Khan the Mayor of London.
We are standing candidates right across London in the local elections to give the people of London the chance to vote for real change.
These elections are about fixing your broken local councils. Reform UK is standing for election on our local government pledges: to cut council waste, put frontline services first, close the immigrant hotels and defend local democracy.
We are committed to protecting London’s green belt spaces. Where Reform UK runs the council, there will be no development allowed on green belt land.
A vote of national importance
These local elections also have a national importance. It is now clear that, despite the endless talk about the Peter Mandelson scandal, Parliament won’t get rid of Keir Starmer. A vote for my party is the surest way to get rid of the most unpatriotic British prime minister of my lifetime.
Only Reform UK will put the British people first. We will stop illegal immigration, secure our borders and stand up for those who work hard and play by the rules. We will act on the cost of living, removing VAT and green levies on your energy bills and easing the pressure on families.
Reform UK is the only party seriously committed to protecting pensioners by preserving the state pension triple lock.
In just a year since the last local elections, our nine majority-controlled Reform UK councils around the country have saved more than £700 million by cutting waste, not frontline services, while keeping council tax lower than other parties where we are in power. That is what Reform UK in action looks like.
Now we are coming to London. It’s time for the people of this great city to get the change they are crying out for. So, let’s vote Reform and get Starmer out on Thursday, May 7.
Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK
