Reform serve up some Worcestershire sauce

More Reform local government woes – this time in Worcestershire where, having been elected into office in May vowing to slash council tax, Nigel Farage’s turquoise Tories are showing considerable sauce.

The party campaigned on cost-cutting and lower taxes in spring’s local elections, claiming tens of millions could be saved by ending so-called DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) initiatives and spending on net zero targets. Alas, this policy began to flounder once Reform got into power, looked at the accounts and realised such spending amounted to very little or nothing in most councils’ budgets.

Now Worcestershire’s Reform cabinet is seeking permission to raise council tax next year by up to 10% – exactly twice as much as the maximum councils are allowed to raise it by without getting special dispensation from central government. Worcestershire has some of the lowest council tax rates in the country, with residents in a band D property paying £2,300 a year. This would rise to £2,530 if the council raised rates by 10%.

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Rob Wharton, the council’s deputy leader, says: “The pressure on the council’s finances from rising demand for statutory services is mainly due to increasing adults’ and children’s social care costs” – something anyone with a day’s experience of local government could have told him, rather than it being Ukrainian flags and Pride marches.

Adam Kent, a Conservative member of the council, has called for Reform to be prosecuted under the Trade Descriptions Act for making false or misleading statements. Perhaps he should be careful. Jo Monk, Worcestershire’s leader, has already demonstrated Reform’s commitment to free speech by sending a legal threat to a Labour councillor demanding he stops mentioning her name in public.

That came after the Labour councillor, Ed Kimberley, posted a video online calling Reform “the new party of the school bully”. What better way to disprove him than by flinging legal threats around?