What happened when Reform took power

0:00This is The Guardian.

0:08Today, what happens when reform takes over your local council? We head to Lancashire to find out.

0:22Welcome everybody. Thank you for turning up. I want to make it clear that we're not here to question the results of the election. but we are here to give a message to reform. It's an unseasonably chilly day in Preston in late May and I'm standing outside the imposing red brick building of Lancashire's County Hall. It's a big day for Lancashire. Reform UK have just won the council elections and are about to hold their first full meeting. And not everyone is happy about it. We believe, and our union, the NEU, believe that reform is a racist party. They want you to blame refugees for the crisis in our society.

1:02As the speeches gather in volume and vigour, I notice one of the new councillors watching on from the doorway, sucking on a vape. It's Joel Tetlow, the new representative for Accrington North. He's in his late 40s with a strong head of hair and neat beard, wearing a pale blue three-piece suit and turquoise tie. And I recognise him because he's already made headlines after having to explain a Hitler-themed meme that he posted on Facebook after winning his seat. The council is for reform, hold racist beliefs. But I think it's important to understand why people vote for reform. Are you a racist? Did you hear that heckle?

1:42It's Joel Tetlow shouting to the protester that he is definitely not a racist. It's a word that's slung around now so much, to be a racist. You know, what is it to be a racist? All we want to do is stand for our country, you know, look after the people within it. So we're not racist. None of us are racist. And do you think it's damaging for reform that the party is regularly called racist? They're free to have their own opinion. But one thing they don't understand is that all this is bringing the profile of reform higher every day. So every day there's more and more people joining. There's no such thing as bad publicity, as they say.

2:31For seven months, I've been keeping a very close eye on what's been happening in Lancashire, my home county. It's one of ten local councils that reform has taken over, and a big test of what could happen if Nigel Farage's party heads to Downing Street. Will reform's anti-woke agenda come crashing down when confronted with the cold, hard realities of local government? Or will they prove themselves more competent than anyone expects?

3:04From The Guardian, I'm Helen Pidd. Today in Focus. Reform's rocky ride in the Red Rose County.

3:16Lancashire County Council meets in a grand debating chamber with huge stained glass windows and mahogany furniture. There is a real first day of school vibe and a lot of reform hued turquoise on show. Turquoise ties and for Maria Jones, one of reform's rare female councillors, a huge turquoise bow in her hair. One of the youngest reform councillors, Joshua Roberts, doesn't seem to have got the memo. Where's your tie? Where's your reform tie? Yes, we got told about 12 hours notice, so I had to find, and unfortunately I didn't have one. Obviously, a lot of these people beforehand weren't all suited and booted.

3:56Most of the people were nine to five jobs and didn't need suits. So we've all, I mean, this is a new suit. I went down to Mossborough's down the road, you know what I mean, and bought them recently, so we've all just rushed. As Joshua says, most of Reform's 53 new councillors in Lancashire are brand new to local government. Just four of them have done the job before. And one of those is the new leader, Stephen Atkinson. He actually ran the smaller Ribble Valley Council for the Tories, but defected to reform in March. He's softly spoken with a ripe Lancashire accent and is always immaculately dressed with a red rose pinned to his suit jacket.

4:31Today is a day of history. For the first time, a party reform UK officially takes control of Lancashire County Council. That is not one of the legacy parties. This is a new dawn, a new beginning, that marks the opportunity of fresh and innovative governance. Our common sense approach is underpinned by one... His first job is to unveil his cabinet. As he introduces them, one thing becomes clear. I will introduce them. Councillor Simon Evans, Councillor Graham Dole, Councillor Matthew Salter, Councillor Brian Moore, Warren Goldsworthy, Joshua Roberts, David Dwyer. None of Reform's nine female councillors have made the top table.

5:15In other ways, though, they're a varied bunch. On the back benches, there's a milkman, a truck driver, an RAF veteran turned barber, a patron decorator, a neuroscientist, a criminal barrister and a farmer. There's Joel Tetlow. He has the sort of job you might not expect from a party determined to abolish the net zero agenda. I'm a renewable consultant, strangely enough. And then there's a former heavy metal roadie. Meet Jed Murfin. And you're a newcomer to the Reform Party, aren't you? You defected how many weeks before the election? I defected six weeks before the election. Some people would say that was an opportunistic move.

5:54No, no, I should have done it a long, long time ago. It wasn't the fact that I left the Tory party, the Tory party left me. Before Jed joined Reform, he was a Conservative councillor for 15 years, as well as Chief Data Officer for the Northwest Development Agency. He has grey hair slicked back like Nick Cave and he wears a ring on every finger. It's a nod to his days working for a band that he has forbidden me from naming because, he says, they'd hate to be associated with reform. His job title in the Cabinet sounds incredibly boring. And I am the Cabinet Member for Resources, HR and Property.

6:30But it turns out that he will be wielding the axe. Like many other local authorities, Lancashire's finances are a mess. The county is more than a billion pounds in debt and needs to make over£300 million worth of savings in the next four years. In Reform's manifesto, they promise to cut waste and balance the books. And they'll do this, they say, with the help of Reform's so-called Doge unit, inspired by Elon Musk's short-lived cost-cutting department in the US. And Jed can't wait to get cracking. What we're going to do is we're going to take a much more forensic approach to the budget. And we're going to ask the question, does this benefit the residents of Lancashire?

7:10And if it doesn't, we're going to stop doing. Like most councils, Lancashire spends most of its money on adult social care and children's services, with increasing numbers of children being diagnosed with special educational needs. It's something that comes up when I get chatting to one of Reform Lancashire's few female councillors, Ellie Close. Just not quite in the way I expect. I have friends with children that are struggling to get a diagnosis through. Langshire County Council have not done enough work in that, and that needs fixing. If we can fix that, and that's the only thing we managed to fix in the next four years, I would still say that was a success.

7:44But your party leader, Nigel Farage, has said that there's been an over-diagnosis of children with special educational needs, and that that is what reform should be looking at, why there's been this explosion in diagnoses. Sorry, say that again. Nigel Farage has said that there's been an over-diagnosis. She seems shocked by her own leader's views. In fact, he said that it's creating a class of victims. I'm not really sure what to say to that, because I've got personal experience with it. I think it's something that we need to currently look at, and I think that's what we're going to do when we'll take it from there, ultimately.

8:20I leave Preston wondering if some of Reform's new councillors really knew what they were signing up for, and whether the leadership will be able to keep such a motley crew together.

8:37It's June when I'm next back at County Hall for Reform's first cabinet meeting. On the way in, I say hi to Jed, and he is not in a good mood. He's fuming about the front page of the local newspaper, which is all about Doge coming to Lancashire. I haven't seen it. Why, what does it say? It's got a picture of Stephen on the front holding a bloody chainsaw. Just not good. Did they mock it up? Yeah, it was mocked up, yeah. I think the editor really ought to apologise. I think it's disgraceful. Nor for the first time, I find myself wondering about the thin skins of the party of free speech.

9:17For the next few months, very little happens. Farage turns up and suggests it'll be easy to cut costs. All I do know is that Lancashire County Council spent half a million quid on ergonomic chairs for staff, many of whom work from home. This is not actually true. Yes, the previous Tory administration did sign a multi-year contract for fancy chairs, but they've only actually spent about 20 grand so far. He promises Doge will arrive in Lancashire any day. But months go by and there is no sign in Lancashire of Reform's crack cost-cutting squad. And so the councillors sweat the small stuff. They introduce a new flags policy so that the Pride and Rainbow flags can no longer fly above County Hall.

10:03Inclusivity isn't measured by the number of flags flown. It's reflecting our policies, services and engagement. They announce they'll be playing the national anthem at the start of every full council meeting. And they talk a lot about potholes. Which means I can fill 20 % more potholes for the same amount of money. That's 42 % reduction in potholes. It's just so much quicker. It's far better value for money.

10:35Each week, reform rise in the polls. By September, YouGov think a reformed government would be a near certainty if a general election were held tomorrow. But in October, in Lancashire at least, things start to look distinctly less rosy for reform when they consult on their first controversial cut, shutting five old people's homes and five council-run day centres for the elderly. It goes down as well as you'd imagine, and a formidable opponent emerges from Woodlands, one of the homes earmarked for closure. Hi, how's it going? Hello, how are you? Her daughter Frances meets me at the door and takes me to meet her mum.

11:14All of the wings in Woodlands are named after trees. There's cedar and beech and ash where Dorothy lives. Her room is really cosy. All over the wall are photographs of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And there's a beautiful painting of her as a nurse, given to her when she retired in 1992. Could you introduce yourself, your name, your age if you want to say it, and how long you've been living here? I'm Dorothy Devrault. I've been living here for almost 12 years and I'm 93 December. Well you look extremely good on it I have to say. So what is Woodlands like as a place to live?

11:53Well I wouldn't go anywhere else. I have a long history actually with Woodlands because I worked here as a carer when it opened at first in 1967. How did you feel when you heard that the council were planning to shut this nursing home. Devastated, angry, frustrated, and I was adamant that I wanted to try my best to save it and with the help of my precious daughter. I've got really cold hands on, sorry. It's all right, you take some breaths. I don't want to upset you. No. That's how I feel if it closed. And I've always said I'm staying here till I'm either dead or forcibly removed. And that's how I feel.

12:56Yeah, you've got me a bit better. So it's so clear how much this matters to you. And do you understand the rationale behind the proposals to close the home so the report says this home is not fit for purpose anymore it's dilapidated they need to spend more than a million pounds on it that people like you would have happier lives in a private home somewhere else where though i sold my own home we worked very hard to buy it i had a bungalow in great hardwood with my husband and I have no home. This is my home. And I sold my home to pay to live here.

13:51Out of interest, did you vote in the local elections in May? I've always, all my life, voted Conservative. Right, OK. So you didn't vote reform this time? Never, but I wouldn't fuck. Well, I don't know if I'm saying the wrong thing, but I think it's racist. Really? Yeah. Yeah, I do. Yeah. What about Reform UK do you think's racist? The fact that they want to send all the people that have worked here back where they came from. If there were no people from abroad worked here, it couldn't run. I have a key worker. I believe you might have just met her. I think we passed her in the corridor, yeah.

14:33She is an angel. All the staff are, and a large percentage, are Asian. They come from overseas to work here? Yeah. And they're absolutely brilliant.

14:57opposition to the potential closure of the care homes continues to mount people are furious petitions are signed and questions are raised in parliament dorothy continues her media blitz as sarah pochin does hers causing a storm after saying it drives me mad when i see adverts full of black people full of asian people People, full of Asian people, full of, you know, people that basically are anything other than whites. What's wrong with that, Sarah? What's wrong with that? Well, it doesn't reflect our society, and I feel that... Pochin is later forced to apologise for her comments, saying they were phrased poorly.

15:33But in County Hall, Jed's moved on to another reform obsession, DEI. What this is about is defaming DEI. It's about applying a political prophylactic so that DEI doesn't spread further within the organisation. He's rewriting the council's inclusivity policies and says he's identified more than 2 ,000 jobs with a DEI element. That's costing this organisation£37.7 million. And I argue that that money can be diversified elsewhere. He seems to be suggesting sweeping job cuts, not just dedicated diversity officers, but also roles like social workers and youth workers. One of the five remaining Labour councillors stands up, a persistent thorn in reform's side.

16:21Thank you, Chair. It might surprise you to learn that I'm not standing up to completely oppose the motion. It's Samara Barnes, who's wearing a Choose Love t-shirt supporting refugees and exposing arms covered in tattoos. She has concerns about who will be rewriting the diversity policy. I'm not sure that this will go down with the top table, but I'm going to say it anyway. I don't think, and I don't think it is at all appropriate for a cabinet of all white men to be making decisions about inclusion. That is not what inclusion is, and it isn't racist at all. You can't hear it on the tape, but reform councillors have just shouted and called her a racist.

16:58And the one shouting loudest is Maria Jones, the only reform councillor in Lancashire who is not white. She was the one with the big bow in her hair on the first day. She was born in Iran and has been made the lead member for tackling violence against women and girls. I must speak out about something that troubles me. I find it deeply offensive, even demeaning, to be reduced to superficial labels. A woman with dark skin, black hair, dark eyes. I reject any special treatment for the way I look, my ethnicity or skin colour. This is not equality. This is not doing me a favour. To view me differently to others is nothing but pure racism.

17:50Samara also gets some stick from one of the young men of reform, Councillor Tom Pickup. it's twice now in this chamber today i've heard the phrase white men ironically we also heard white boys and there was consensus that disadvantaged working class white boys need more help because statistically the worse off and you've got a cabinet mostly full of people who are exceptions to that rule and they get targeted for being white men

18:31A few weeks later, The Guardian publishes the first of a series of articles, alleging that Nigel Farage taunted pupils with racist and anti-Semitic slurs as a teenager. Farage denies that he said anything racist with malice, but the story runs for weeks and weeks. At the same time, it emerges that Councillor Tom Pickup had been a member of a far-right WhatsApp group, where one member allegedly called for a mass Islam genocide, encouraging others to stoppile weapons to attack lefties and migrants. Pickup insists he didn't read most of the offensive messages, but is promptly suspended. And it's not just him.

19:06Maria Jones quietly quits her role as champion for women and girls. She says it's to concentrate on family and work commitments, but other sources say her position had become untenable after questions were raised about her past, when she went by an entirely different identity. Altogether, it leaves me with the impression there are potentially problems with reform's vetting processes.

19:34Coming up, what a reform voter in Lancashire makes of the party's first seven months in charge?

19:53It's early November when I head back to Preston, and I catch up with Jed over a pub lunch at the Old Vic near County Hall. He orders a pint and pie and chips, with none of the other stuff. He means the vegetables. So this is the media briefing. He looks knackered. He says he's been getting up at 6am most days, and poring over spreadsheets until 1am most nights. But things are going well, he says. So much so that Nigel Farage and Reform see Lancashire as a beacon. They regard us as a kind of model council in the Reform central office. They're using AI technology to fill potholes in record time, he says, and also to speed up assessments for children with special educational needs.

20:38But they're also bogged down with record numbers of complaints. The number of complaints that we've received against individual members is the highest it's ever been, and that has a lot to do with the fact that reform tends to be an easy target. Some of the complaints by female opposition councillors against male reform councillors are so serious that they're reported to the police. Most of the alleged abuse happens on social media, but some of the things the reform councillors say in public in the council chamber are pretty outrageous. One day I go and they're discussing proposals from the government to split Lancashire County Council up.

21:24Jed thinks it's a very bad idea. And he makes his point in a startling way.

21:32Now there was a very prescient individual who warned presciently about the likely long-term impact of membership of the European community. It's a chap called Enoch Powell. I agree with Enoch. Enoch said that local identity and national identity were much more important than economic efficiency. And that's the concern that I have. Enoch Powell is better known for giving one of the most divisive and racist speeches in British political history. Back in 1968, when he was a Tory MP, it came to be known as his Rivers of Blood speech, where he said the black man will have the whip hand over the white man.

22:13In future years, when residents get asked to pay more and more council tax going forward, they'll get more and more disenchanted. If you think the reform revolution was strong now, you just wait for a couple of years' time. It's going to be even stronger.

22:38On my final day in Lancashire, the council's Adult Social Care Scrutiny Committee is due to meet. Once again, there are protesters outside County Hall. Well, they're in reception, actually. Can we just chat while we're waiting to go in? Who's your response? Who's your main person? They're here to represent the care home still set for the chop. One of the protesters is Phil Price, who's carrying a huge St George's flag that says Save Grove House on it. It's where his mum lives. To be quite honest, my mum's 93. If she finds out about this, it'll kill her. She gets so upset and change is very bad.

23:18And I'd like to know why somebody on the committee is a director of a private run nursing home. Phil's talking about Graham Dalton, the reform counsellor in charge of adult social care. He hasn't got Dalton's role quite right, but he's close. Dalton owns a private care company with his wife that delivers complex care to people in their own homes. Phil thinks that poses a conflict of interest. If he's on the board as a director of a company, surely he has some interest in that company. He's got to have. And I'll be honest with you, I'm a paid-up member of reform and I'm disgusted with him. Really?