Nigel Farage vows to 'fight a big campaign' in Northamptonshire as Kettering hosts Reform UK election rally

The party leader spoke to a hall full of supporters at Kettering Leisure Village (KLV) on Wednesday evening (April 2) to announce the start of the local election campaign.

Mr Farage said his group had handed in nomination papers and 144 candidates will stand across all possible seats in the North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire Council elections on May 1.

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that the nominees were not just ‘paper candidates’ and that they were all enthusiastic about trying to win.

He added that the party’s ‘professionalisation’ meant all candidates standing in the county had been vetted and stated he was ‘confident we’ve got great people’ standing.

The event, which hosted a crowd of about 800 paying attendees, greeted Mr Farage and speeches from local candidates Cllr Martin Griffiths and Anthony Owens with cheers and applause.

Voting for Reform UK was presented as the only alternative for the county amid the leader’s claims that ‘local government in Northamptonshire is broken and only Reform will fix it’.

A small group of protesters gathered outside the venue in front of the queueing Reform UK activists and supporters.

They chanted ‘hatred is not welcome here’, occasionally breaking through the music and chatter inside the hall.

They could be heard in the background of the leader’s address.

During his speech, Mr Farage hit out at the abolition of the former county council and district councils in exchange for the two unitaries, calling it a ‘guinea pig’ for what the Labour government is trying to do elsewhere in the country.

He said: “I promise you that our elected representatives, when they get into this council, and believe me, we are going to win a lot of seats, we will argue for the county identity to come back as it ought to be.

"We will argue for the mayor to cover the county and not include Luton, Bedford and Milton Keynes.”

Speaking to the LDRS before his speech, Mr Farage said the first thing his group would do if they were elected was get a full audit into council spending.

He said: “I want to drill down into what are the five and 10-year contracts that have been signed up.

“When one party is in power for too long complacency and laziness do set in.

"Let’s have a DOGE-style operation for Northamptonshire, let’s see where money’s being spent.

“Let’s ask whether it’s appropriate that councils in this county should be thinking about dealing with climate change, let’s look at what they’ve spent on diversity, inclusion, etcetera. Let’s get a proper grip on the finances.”

Since December, four members of North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) have defected to Reform UK, three of whom ditched the local Conservative group and one who was previously an independent.

There are currently no sitting members on West Northamptonshire Council.

When asked if he was concerned that the vote between the Conservative and Reform candidates would be split, as seen last year in the General Election with the new party placing third in many constituencies, he said they had ‘moved on a long way since the election’.

He continued: “I think the Conservative party is a busted flush. They may well have been around for 194 years but nothing lasts forever, they’re deeply divided.

“We think we’ll challenge the Labour Party in the urban areas and the Conservatives in the rural areas.

"All I do know is we’re going to get a big percentage, we’re going to fight a big campaign, and we’re going to be really competing in most of those 144 seats.”

Currently, the Conservatives are the group to beat on both authorities, with 50 councillors on NNC and 59 on WNC.

Labour makes up the biggest opposition party in both instances with 33 elected members across both authorities.