Nigel Farage promises Reform UK spending blitz for May elections

Nigel Farage has signalled Reform UK will launch a £5 million spending blitz ahead of May’s local elections.

He acknowledged questions will be asked about his position if the party’s poll lead is not transformed into results.

The Reform leader said the allegations he has faced of racism during his schooldays at the elite Dulwich College were not having an impact and were “maybe solidifying our core support”.

The party’s election war chest has been bolstered by a £9 million donation in August from businessman Christopher Harborne.

Mr Farage plans to spend around £5 million of that over the next four months, on direct mail to voters and social media campaigns, The Times reported.

Bad results for Labour in the elections in the Scotland and Welsh parliaments and English councils could increase pressure on Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership, while Kemi Badenoch’s position at the top of the Tory party could also be at risk if the Conservatives do badly.

But Mr Farage – whose Reform party has enjoyed consistent national opinion poll leads since April last year – acknowledged he was also under pressure to deliver results at the ballot box.

The Reform leader said: “It’s double or quits. As far as I’m concerned we are just going to go for it.

“If we come out of it without a single penny in the bank account and everyone is exhausted… It is the single most important event between now and the general election.

“On it depends the future of our Prime Minister, the future of the Leader of the Opposition and indeed my own relative strength or otherwise as leader of Reform.

“If we bombed people would ask questions. My entire focus and energy is on the planning and preparation for it.”

He said there would be a “big emphasis on social media” campaigning to reach people who did not vote in the 2024 general election.

“Our key audience is people who did not vote, to motivate them to get registered and offer them a fundamental change,” he said.

Scrutiny

Mr Farage has come under intense scrutiny, including a series of Guardian reports featuring allegations from contemporaries at Dulwich College, the private school he attended in the late 1970s to early 1980s.

The Reform leader said claims – including that he told a Jewish classmate that “Hitler was right” and said “gas them” – will not have an electoral impact because they were seen as an attack on him from the “mainstream media”.

“It’s having zero effect,” he said. “It’s maybe solidifying our core support.”

A Yougov poll published before Christmas revealed that the lead held by Farage’s party has dropped from 10 to five points with both Labour and the Tories gaining

The poll, carried out on 21 and 22 December confirmed Reform’s vote share had dropped by three points to 25 per cent, their lowest for more than six months.

Meanwhile, both Labour and the Tories have gained two points, up to 20 per cent and 19 per cent respectively.