Reform UK MP Nigel Farage has posted a new video to X with the statement: "I sent a letter to every Conservative Councillor facing re-election next year inviting them to defect to Reform UK."
Reform UKs Lee Anderson said "I expect local defections. Very soon."
Reform UKs Richard Tice said: "Nigel Farage writes to every Tory councillor warning them to defect or lose….. Time to realign the right."
The full transcript of Mr Farage's video is below:
Next May, we have the English County Council elections. It'll be the first big genuinely national campaign from Reform UK, and we are throwing the kitchen sink at it. But there are 1,352 conservative county councillors out there whose seats are up for grabs next time around. Interestingly, a huge number of them genuinely agree with us and what we stand for. You see the Conservative party in the country is very different to the Conservative Party in Westminster.
So I'm about to send a letter to all 1352 of them to say, look, we are standing in every single seat in the English County elections. We will not be standing aside for absolutely anybody. You know in your heart of hearts that this is 4 years on from peak Boris when the Conservative Party was doing well, and you know that the vast majority of you are going to lose your seats. But before I select the candidates and our branches will be picking these by the end of November, before we get the campaign into full swing, I want to give those county councillors who really believe in the country, who understand and know that things need to be turned around because we're in such a state of decline, I want to give them the opportunity to come and join us and stand for Reform UK. I think it's the right and decent thing to do.
So they've got a deadline in which to respond to me. We won't take anybody. I mean, clearly, if they're not, if they're not suitable, or if they wish to bring their own brand of Tory infighting, we wouldn't want to know. But I do believe that the vast majority of them are very decent men and women who believe in very similar values to me and to a party that has now hit a membership of 93,000 and is growing by the hundreds every single day. So it's up to those councillors to decide what they want to do.
We're going to stand in every single seat. We won't stand aside for anybody. It's a big chance for them to come and join us and to understand that it's actually irrelevant whether Kemi Badenock or Robert oh, Jenrick, that's right, or Robert Jenrick, wins the Tory leadership contest. The brand is broken. It's done.
You can't betray people consistently, election after election, manifesto after manifesto, without a massive price to pay. So here goes. I'm gonna push the button. It's on its way.
https://twitter.com/Nigel_Farage/status/1849335011171864628
