UK's first Reform club opens in former Tory drinking den

SWNS

Britain's first Reform UK club has opened  - in a former Conservative drinking venue.  Two Reform UK supporters have rebranded a former pub in Blackpool, Lancashire, into a club for the party faithful.  Co-owners Peter Flynn, 53, and Nicholas Lowe, 56, used a pub formerly called The Talbot and officially opened it The Talbot: Reform UK Club on Monday.  They rebranded club was once a Conservative Club - painting it sky blue and replacing the signs with the logo.  It comes just two weeks after the party's landslide victory across the UK which saw it take control of many local councils, including Lancashire County council, during the local elections on May 1.

Transcript

00:00Hi, good afternoon. My name is Pete Flynn, the co-owner of the new Talbot Reform UK pub,

00:04the first Reform UK pub in the world. Everybody's welcome. No racism here.

00:12The press have been absolutely fantastic, really supportive. The footfall has increased and

00:20everything face-to-face has been so positive. We're very, very, very happy. We're common

00:27centre policies and that's why 677 seats got in local government. It seems like three quarters

00:34of the country agree with what we're doing. Again, I'd like to stipulate everybody is welcome. Cheers.

00:43It's Talbot Pub. It used to be just an ordinary bar, a social club, a working man's club,

00:49but now they've decided to make it the Reform and it's a great idea. It's getting a lot of publicity

00:54and we're all for it round here because it's time for change round here. It's so low and deprived

00:59that it's hard for us. I don't really drink, but I used to go in there on a Thursday

01:04and Monday with my friend Chris, who's also disabled. We go in there for a quiet, we don't

01:09drink, but we go in there for a bit of time together, a bit of chat with a few people in

01:13there. It was very quiet. There weren't a lot of people in there to be honest, but you know,

01:17there's a lot of people who ain't got no money round here, so it's hard for him to drink. But he's

01:20that Nick, he's a good man because he gets drinks as low as he can and I think he's really doing it

01:24for the people round here. He's really trying to make a statement for the people round here because

01:28they've got nothing. It's hard work. I will go back in there, yeah, because I've got a lot of

01:33respect for him now because he's stood up and done something. So at the end of the day, Nick,

01:37I'm proud of you. You know what I mean? Because as I said, there's a lot of people around here

01:40that ain't got nothing. And the pub was quiet before, to be honest. On a Saturday and Sunday,

01:45it'd get busy, but in the week it was very, very quiet. But I will start drinking there again

01:49now to support him, to support him because he's obviously supporting reform. So we'll

01:53stick together and there we go. Might make change.

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