Nigel Farage reveals Reform UK's game plan for Kent County Council

The leader hinted at possible job cuts and an end to work-from-home during a celebration event in Paddock Wood, following Reform UK's seismic win.

Transcript

00:00Touching down in Kent, the county long known as a Tory stronghold,

00:07Nigel Farage landing for a celebration in Panic Wood

00:11as voters delivered a seismic swing to his party in the local elections.

00:16Nigel, how does it feel to be back in Kent?

00:18Very good. What a result here. Stunning.

00:21Reform UK now has 57 councillors on KCC, a 16-seat majority.

00:27The surge has shaken the political landscape, nearly wiping out the Tories.

00:32They barely exist anymore, and I think their 200-year history is coming to an end.

00:37Did you expect it to be so good? No.

00:40Yet the party has never controlled a local authority, so what should voters expect?

00:46Well, I would suggest if you think you can work from home under us,

00:50you might find yourself having quite a short, sharp conversation.

00:54And if you're working in DEI or climate change for the county,

00:57then perhaps alternative employment is where you should be looking.

01:00We want to slim down the size of local government to get it back to the basics

01:04and to make sure that council taxpayers start to get better value for money.

01:10So job cuts are on the way here?

01:12Well, there may well be job cuts in areas like DEI.

01:15How many?

01:16Hey, we haven't looked at the books yet, I can't tell you.

01:19In this leafy Sevenoaks village, Otford stood as one of the safest Tory seats.

01:25Roger Goff, a former KCC leader, lost his post fair to reform.

01:31The scale, I think, of what's happening, not just across this county, but also across the country,

01:36does rather put it all into perspective.

01:38So personally, I'm disappointed.

01:41I would like to go on representing that division, but that was not to be.

01:46And I think there's clearly something, as I say, much, much bigger than any of us going on.

01:51For Conservatives holding just five seats, Labour has two.

01:56The Lib Dems with 12 seats will now form the official opposition on the council.

02:01We will do our utmost to hold reform to account because what we can see from their campaign literature

02:08is that they have no idea about how to run a county council.

02:11They've campaigned on national issues and now they've got to do the hard yards for the people of Kent.

02:16Reform UK's win is unprecedented and it has lit fireworks across the political scene.

02:23But as the celebrations settle in Kent, the party must now face KCC's tight budgets

02:31and the looming question of devolution.

02:34Gabriel Morris in Paddock Wood.