Nigel Farage takes brutal swipe at Kemi Badenoch after by-election wins | Politics | News | EUROtoday

Nigel Farage has lashed out at Kemi Badenoch because the native election battle heats up. The Reform UK chief posted his newest barb in opposition to his Conservative Party rival on X, telling his followers: “Since Kemi Badenoch became Tory leader, Reform UK have gained more seats in council by-elections than any other party.”

Mr Farage’s criticism seems to be backed up by the proof. An Express evaluation of Open Council Data reveals that since Mrs Badenoch was elected chief on November 2 final 12 months, Reform UK has picked up 100 council ward seats in contrast with 51 for the Tories.

While the numbers seem to assist Mr Farage’s put up claiming victory over all different events, it doesn’t take into the lager variety of council ward seats received by unbiased candidates, a complete of 226, in line with the Express evaluation.

The identical evaluation reveals Labour has received 48 council by-elections, the Liberal Democrats 34, the Green Party 11 and others, together with the SNP, Plaid and DUP, 26.

While the numbers present Reform selecting up most seats, in addition they present the celebration misplaced seven seats. This compares with Tory losses of 151, with quite a lot of these seats switching to Mr Farage’s celebration.

Some X customers took situation with Mr Farage’s put up, sharing evaluation of mixture outcomes of 230 council by-elections for the reason that General Election final 12 months by Election Maps UK.

The whole differs to Open Council Data’s and dates to earlier than Mrs Badenoch took the helm of the Conservative Party.

Nevertheless, Election Maps UK reveals Reform selecting up 14 council seats since July 4, 2024. This compares to the Tories on 61 (+24), Labour on 74 (-42), Lib Dems seeing no change on 46, the Greens on 11 (+3) and Independents additionally seeing no change on 12. The SNP added two council seats to take their whole to 10, Plaid noticed no change on 4.

The Conservative Party has been approached for remark.

Reform is standing extra candidates in subsequent month’s native elections than both Labour or the Conservatives – although no celebration has managed to search out sufficient individuals to contest each seat.

Voters in 23 native authorities in England go the polls on May 1 to decide on their new councillors. It is the primary large check on the poll field for political events since Labour received the overall election in July 2024.

A complete of 1,641 council seats throughout the 23 authorities are up for grabs. Reform is standing 1,631 candidates, in line with PA information company evaluation of nomination knowledge revealed by native authorities. It means the celebration is contesting 99.4% of seats.

The Conservatives have 1,596 candidates (97.3% of seats) whereas Labour has 1,543 (94.0%). Further behind are the Liberal Democrats, with 1,396 candidates (85.1%) and the Greens, with 1,183 (72.1%).

Mr Farage’s newest criticism comes after he rebuffed a suggestion from Mrs Badenoch that Conservative councillors might go into coalition with Reform UK after subsequent month’s native elections.

The Conservative chief has constantly dominated out any nationwide take care of Reform, whose chief Mr Farage has vowed to “destroy” the Tory celebration.

On Thursday, Mrs Badenoch steered the image might be totally different regionally, however Mr Farage mentioned his celebration had “no intention” of forming coalitions with the Tories “at any level”.

The Tory chief informed BBC Breakfast: “I’ve seen Conservatives go into coalition with Labour, with Liberal Democrats, with Independents.

“You do not get to have a rerun of an election at native degree, so what I’m telling native leaders throughout the nation (is) they need to do what is true for the individuals of their native space.”

Mrs Badenoch added that local Tories would also need to “persist with Conservative rules” such as “sound cash” and “not extreme authorities intervention”.

But Clacton MP Mr Farage later rejected the idea. He said: “The Tories broke Britain nationally for 14 years, and their councils proceed to interrupt native communities with the best taxes ever and worst companies.

“Reform have no intention in forming coalitions with the Tories at any level. We encourage everyone who wants real change to vote Reform on May 1.”