Rise of Reform and unfinished business..

WITH my ‘local elections’ column appearing on Election Day itself, it was always my intention to return to the topic.

- Chris Game

Indeed, I deliberately signalled some ‘unfinished business.

Fortuitously, for I hadn’t expected there being quite such a large proportion of electors/readers and even reporters who, it seemed, certainly at the time, never fully grasped just how exceptional some of the results and outcomes in these elections actually were - almost all, it's worth remembering, in traditional Conservative territory, and the party nationally losing control of all 16 councils it previously held.

Single-sentence summary: had these local elections been held nationwide, the Conservatives’ 15% vote share would have put them in fourth place - significantly adrift of Reform UK’s 30%, Labour's 20%, and the Lib Dems’ 17%.

Quite suddenly, we have in Nigel Farage’s Reform UK Party a political entity capable of seriously disrupting our longstanding Commons two-party system at the probably 2029 General Election. Strong 230,000 paid-up membership base, a visible and vocal parliamentary platform, an appealing ‘something different’ prospectus with popular views on immigration, donors with (seven-figure) dosh - it’s a formidable combination.

The scale of Reform UK’s local election wins and gains - 10 councils, two elected mayors, and now over 800 councillors (677 new ones), most from Conservative defections was a kind of missing link, maybe the crucial catalyst.

Here, then, are some brief reminders of the Midlands’ contribution, drawing on my election day column and the Post's earlier results ‘round-up. As before, I focus on the four West Midlands county councils that held ‘all-out’ whole-council elections their last ever, if Local Government Secretary Angela Rayner uses Labour's massive parliamentary majority and triggers her promised biggest reorganisation of councils for more than 50 years.