Yet more troubles in Reformland

Reform’s troubles aren’t confined to Nathan Gill. Despite claims ahead of May’s local council elections that they would slash spending once they were in office, Nigel Farage’s mob is finding it trickier than anticipated.

In Lincolnshire, where former Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns pledged deep cuts after she became mayor, it is now proposed that the budget for her office should actually go up by a whopping 128%, from £115,000 to £262,000. “I literally have zero people in my team,” moaned Jenkyns, who claims she has to stay up until 3am to answer emails – not a problem, you’d have thought, for the woman who entertained Reform’s conference with a bizarre self-penned song about her own insomnia.

Perhaps her next purchase should be an alarm clock – in her short time as mayor, Jenkyns has missed two meetings of the Greater Lincolnshire Combined County Authority and been half an hour late for one.

Suggested Reading

Reform, Farage and Tice: it’s all about the money

Rats in a Sack

It is a similar story in Kent, where Nigel Farage insisted that spending was
“beyond belief” and that his party was “going to save a lot of money”. Now,
rather than slashing spending, plans are in place to increase council tax and ask schools to pay £2.2m more for services that are currently subsidised.

These include statutory compliance testing, which includes asbestos management and fire and electrical safety, and scrapping in-house occupational health services. Perhaps Farage thinks measures to stop schools burning down are “beyond belief”?

Meanwhile, Reform’s “donor tsar” Nick Candy has finally made a breakthrough after struggling to find rich folk willing to give their cash to a far right party. Reform has now received a £1m handout – although it must be viewed as a slight disappointment that the donor is Candy himself!

When he became Reform’s honorary treasurer last year, billionaire Candy –
who recently split up with his wife, former pop singer Holly Vallance – said he planned to bring in between £25m and £40m by the time of the next general election. He has some catching up to do, with just £3m banked so far.