This surge of support for Reform is unsurprising to any UK citizens, or anyone else that’s been paying attention; it was predicted and it has materialised.

Support has not been won with promises of an economic utopia, or rejoining the EU, or transforming the crippled NHS. It is all about Immigration, and stopping, and even reversing, the present wave upon wave, of illegal, mostly young male immigrants, from an incompatible culture flooding into our tiny island.

Consecutive governments, both Tory and Labour are culpable, having failed to deal with it for years, and this is the only reason that Reform have gained so much support.

Labour have made it worse for themselves by morphing from a party for working people into the party for non working people; at every opportunity they have prioritised the minority muslim population to garner their vote, and so marginalised the ordinary indigenous white working class.

Last month Labour scrapped the 2 child benefit cap; families of Pakistani heritage make up between 2.5% - 2.7% of the UK population, but data from the Office for National Statistics indicates that 79% of families with 3 or more children are of Pakistani or Bangladeshi origin, while only 14% of such families are white British. Vote mining.

People are free to claim that there is some benefit to thousands of young men from an incompatible culture flooding into the UK, but objection to this, is the main, maybe only, reason for people voting for Reform; and those voters are long past caring about sneers and insults of racism and bigotry from the left ….. Amen

16 hours ago, nauseus said:

Laughable? Like the idea of the UK voting to leave the EU?

Yes, the Brexit vote was laughable and most now regret it. When people realise how shambolic Reform are, they'll regret this vote too.

10 hours ago, BarraMarra said:

Your clueless and obviously a labour man and i bet you voted to stay in the brexit poll Brewster. So you'd be ok with the ECHR controlling us and telling us if you like chicken nuggets don't worry, we won't deport your drug pusher Daddy ?

Of course I'm a Labour man - and naturally I voted to Remain. The rest of your comment makes no sense.

I'm hoping Restore replace reform popularity by the next election.

I hate to say it but Farage is morphing into Tory 2.0. Rupert Lowe is unapologetically resolute in his mission to deport illegals or make things so unpleasant that they self deport.

Farage is obviously better than Labour though and these results will make it much more difficult for Labour to continue their mission to destroy Britain before they are voted out.

11 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

I'm hoping Restore replace reform popularity by the next election.

I hate to say it but Farage is morphing into Tory 2.0. Rupert Lowe is unapologetically resolute in his mission to deport illegals or make things so unpleasant that they self deport.

Farage is obviously better than Labour though and these results will make it much more difficult for Labour to continue their mission to destroy Britain before they are voted out.

I'm inclined to agree with you, for a change. Apart from your third point, obviously.

Of course there will not be a GE for another 3 years 😁 😁 😁..or that's what all the lefties think. The man was doomed from day one in office, worst premier ever. It doesn't bother me, there is not one honest, upstanding politician that fights for the rights of the British0 but Faragel will be PM with a year

36 minutes ago, brewsterbudgen said:

Yes, the Brexit vote was laughable and most now regret it. When people realise how shambolic Reform are, they'll regret this vote too.

A decade ago that vote happened, can't you move on man

9 minutes ago, brewsterbudgen said:

I'm inclined to agree with you, for a change. Apart from your third point, obviously.

You don't think it will hamper Labour's mission to weaken Britain?

Surely it will...

10 hours ago, beautifulthailand99 said:

Yeah if you say so ! Why won't he talk about it , show us the recipts and open the books and stop having Refrom as a Limited Company. He's a shameless grifter - always has been and the idiots that might propel him into power deserve everything that might come to him. I can't fix stupid but will ceratinly hedge against it shoulkd he come close to winning - buy shorting the UK which is effectivley the pound. Just remember expats what happedn the day after you are still paying for it.

The exchange rate of the pound is not related to the success of the country.

As demonstrated by the value of the Thai Baht and the value of the pound.

Both Thailand and the UK have little or no value as countries and have had very poor governments for years, and their currencies would be essentially worthless if your theory was correct.

Same for China which makes almost everything for the world, while it's currency value is extremely low.

Edited May 9May 9 by BritManToo

4 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

You don't think it will hamper Labour's mission to weaken Britain?

Surely it will...

Thought it was Cameron who changed his u/wear

when UKIP surged and then was too idle to

campaign and we got Brexit.

Labour got nothing to do with it.

1 minute ago, Jim Blue said:

Thought it was Cameron who changed his u/wear

when UKIP surged and then was too idle to

campaign and we got Brexit.

Labour got nothing to do with it.

It's always the Tories fault even when they're not the topic of the conversation. 😄

It's like American Liberals with Trump. They'll manage to squeeze him in somewhere.

An unhealthy obsession.

11 hours ago, BarraMarra said:

i think we know who is is the Scarley red thumber Prang gutless and hides behind his keyboard. i think the team should look at removing this Emoji.

i think we should keep the emoji but remove the anonymity , lets see who they are, name and shame

38 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

I'm hoping Restore replace reform popularity by the next election.

I hate to say it but Farage is morphing into Tory 2.0. Rupert Lowe is unapologetically resolute in his mission to deport illegals or make things so unpleasant that they self deport.

Farage is obviously better than Labour though and these results will make it much more difficult for Labour to continue their mission to destroy Britain before they are voted out.

You make a good point. I have already spoken to two friends in the UK that voted Reform in theses elections; they both said they would have voted for Restore Britain if it was not so early in the Party’s infancy, and consequently a possible wasted vote.

They both said that by the time of the next General election, they hoped that Rupert Lowe will have formed some kind of allegiance with Reform, so that the anti-immigration vote becomes coordinated rather than split.

Mid-Parliament local elections are almost always a disaster for the Party in power. It reflects 'ANTI-INCUMBENCY' and as always, that's driven by 24 hour media and pontificating Political analysts, of whom we have thousands.

19 hours ago, TorquayFan said:

As Sir John Major pointed out in an interview recently the 'game' of changing Prime Ministers dominates UK politics, 7 in the last 10 years ?

IMO the PM has made some shocking mistakes but Reform will prove to be a 'puff of wind' in 3 years time, Green are a joke, and I don't see the Tory vote recovering under the gruesome Badenoch. So we are in for some interesting years ahead.

Britain IS in quite a mess !

There is evidence of the Tories regaining ground. Remember the SDP? When they formed the Alliance, it was very much a David Owen vehicle, with the old Liberal Party the junior partner. By October 81, the Alliance was regularly polling 40-42% in polls, with the high water being 50% by the end of the year, the Tories were down to 23%, behind Michael Foot's Labour party. It was all the same talk then, that Labour and the Tories were finished, there was going to be new politics in Britain. There is a long way to go. Reform still suffer the same problem as the SDP did. At its peak, there were 30 SDP MPs. Parliamentary rules mean the Opposition gets 6 questions at PMQs, the Liberal Democrats as the next biggest, get 2. Minor parties get a question at the Speaker's discretion, and Hoyle has introduced his convention of allowing minor parties a question every few weeks, with Reform getting a question every 9 weeks. Given Labour's majority, there won't be an election until 2029, Farage will get 12 questions to ask of the Prime Minister. Has he got 12 killer questions in him.

So far, Farage has asked one question at PMQ, about channel crossings.

In total, he has asked 20 questions in his parliamentary career

6 questions about immigration, asylum seekers

3 questions about foreign affairs

4 questions about Clacton

1 question about the UK economy

1 question about non-doms

1 question about Ukraine

1 question about health

Still a one trick pony.

All the other parties get 888 opportunities to set the agenda. Local elections is one thing, where frankly people are even less knowledgable who their local councillor is than their MP. While in General Elections, you are technically voting for your local MP, in reality, you are casting a vote in favour of a party. The UK doesn't have a Presidential system, nor a Presidential cabinet; we go into elections with reasonable knowledge not only who is the Leader, but who occupies the major portfolios that might end up actually running the country, such as defence, foreign affairs, home office, health, the treasury; these are the areas most people care about. Reform has 8 MPs, they'll likely get into double digits by the next election, due to by-elections etc. From that group, 5 Reform MPs plus Farage have to get sufficiently recognised and trusted by the Public that they can actually run the country.. Besides Farage, only one Reform MP has been vaguely visible on the national stage and that's Robert Jenrick, who does have ambition. Braverman has become virtually invisible, and basically went a bit mad.

Starmer is a weak personality, a break from politics of the last few years. I suspect the public will now get to know more of the Labour front bench, possibly not in a good way, and more of the Tory front bench, who will have greater opportunity in Parliament than any of the opposition MPs, to ask questons of ministers, which will be picked up on the 10pm News, which they will no doubt be interviewed about, and basically get greater exposure. The SDP was doomed to failure.

Local elections like those in May 2026 can look like political turning points; moments when insurgent parties surge and the system appears to be realigning, but under FPTP they often mark a high-water point rather than a lasting shift. Parties such as Reform can attract significant national attention and vote share, yet without a strong base of MPs they remain structurally constrained: limited parliamentary representation means limited visibility, weaker scrutiny power, and reduced ability to shape the daily political agenda, which in turn slows momentum compared to established parties. That pattern echoes the SDP in the 1980s, which polled strongly at times but struggled to convert support into seats, and it also mirrors aspects of Canada’s Conservative experience, where the party rebounded after fragmentation on the right and temporary displacement by new or rebranded forces, ultimately re-establishing itself once the opposition vote consolidated and voters reverted to a familiar governing alternative. In that sense, apparent insurgent peaks can coexist with a system that still favours recovery by established parties like the Conservatives, especially when opposition votes are split and geography plus incumbency continue to translate modest pluralities into parliamentary power.

I'm not sure Badenoch will be leader into the next election. I'm a Party member, and have voted in leadership elections. I wasn't all that impressed with her, but even less impressed by Jenrick, who always struck me as a bit of an ambitious chancer (Farage, watch out). But my opinion of Badenoch is changing, evolving, and in British politics, we tend to under estimate female politicians, left and right. And, to be a little left field, the World Cup, and specifically, the England football team could be very influential in voting attitudes. The England team has quite a high representation lads of West African heritage, who are genuinely good at their game, grafters and likeable, kids like (though he's not a kid now) Bukayu Saka, Ezri Konsa, Eberechi Eze, maybe even Noni Madueke. If England do well, and these players do well, and England supports sing the praises of Saka, Eze, I think that might soften the people who resist backing Kemi because her name isn't English enough.

2 minutes ago, Roadsternut said:

Mid-Parliament local elections are almost always a disaster for the Party in power. It reflects 'ANTI-INCUMBENCY' and as always, that's driven by 24 hour media and pontificating Political analysts, of whom we have thousands.

There is evidence of the Tories regaining ground. Remember the SDP? When they formed the Alliance, it was very much a David Owen vehicle, with the old Liberal Party the junior partner. By October 81, the Alliance was regularly polling 40-42% in polls, with the high water being 50% by the end of the year, the Tories were down to 23%, behind Michael Foot's Labour party. It was all the same talk then, that Labour and the Tories were finished, there was going to be new politics in Britain. There is a long way to go. Reform still suffer the same problem as the SDP did. At its peak, there were 30 SDP MPs. Parliamentary rules mean the Opposition gets 6 questions at PMQs, the Liberal Democrats as the next biggest, get 2. Minor parties get a question at the Speaker's discretion, and Hoyle has introduced his convention of allowing minor parties a question every few weeks, with Reform getting a question every 9 weeks. Given Labour's majority, there won't be an election until 2029, Farage will get 12 questions to ask of the Prime Minister. Has he got 12 killer questions in him.

So far, Farage has asked one question at PMQ, about channel crossings.

In total, he has asked 20 questions in his parliamentary career

6 questions about immigration, asylum seekers

3 questions about foreign affairs

4 questions about Clacton

1 question about the UK economy

1 question about non-doms

1 question about Ukraine

1 question about health

Still a one trick pony.

All the other parties get 888 opportunities to set the agenda. Local elections is one thing, where frankly people are even less knowledgable who their local councillor is than their MP. While in General Elections, you are technically voting for your local MP, in reality, you are casting a vote in favour of a party. The UK doesn't have a Presidential system, nor a Presidential cabinet; we go into elections with reasonable knowledge not only who is the Leader, but who occupies the major portfolios that might end up actually running the country, such as defence, foreign affairs, home office, health, the treasury; these are the areas most people care about. Reform has 8 MPs, they'll likely get into double digits by the next election, due to by-elections etc. From that group, 5 Reform MPs plus Farage have to get sufficiently recognised and trusted by the Public that they can actually run the country.. Besides Farage, only one Reform MP has been vaguely visible on the national stage and that's Robert Jenrick, who does have ambition. Braverman has become virtually invisible, and basically went a bit mad.

Starmer is a weak personality, a break from politics of the last few years. I suspect the public will now get to know more of the Labour front bench, possibly not in a good way, and more of the Tory front bench, who will have greater opportunity in Parliament than any of the opposition MPs, to ask questons of ministers, which will be picked up on the 10pm News, which they will no doubt be interviewed about, and basically get greater exposure. The SDP was doomed to failure.

Local elections like those in May 2026 can look like political turning points; moments when insurgent parties surge and the system appears to be realigning, but under FPTP they often mark a high-water point rather than a lasting shift. Parties such as Reform can attract significant national attention and vote share, yet without a strong base of MPs they remain structurally constrained: limited parliamentary representation means limited visibility, weaker scrutiny power, and reduced ability to shape the daily political agenda, which in turn slows momentum compared to established parties. That pattern echoes the SDP in the 1980s, which polled strongly at times but struggled to convert support into seats, and it also mirrors aspects of Canada’s Conservative experience, where the party rebounded after fragmentation on the right and temporary displacement by new or rebranded forces, ultimately re-establishing itself once the opposition vote consolidated and voters reverted to a familiar governing alternative. In that sense, apparent insurgent peaks can coexist with a system that still favours recovery by established parties like the Conservatives, especially when opposition votes are split and geography plus incumbency continue to translate modest pluralities into parliamentary power.

I'm not sure Badenoch will be leader into the next election. I'm a Party member, and have voted in leadership elections. I wasn't all that impressed with her, but even less impressed by Jenrick, who always struck me as a bit of an ambitious chancer (Farage, watch out). But my opinion of Badenoch is changing, evolving, and in British politics, we tend to under estimate female politicians, left and right. And, to be a little left field, the World Cup, and specifically, the England football team could be very influential in voting attitudes. The England team has quite a high representation lads of West African heritage, who are genuinely good at their game, grafters and likeable, kids like (though he's not a kid now) Bukayu Saka, Ezri Konsa, Eberechi Eze, maybe even Noni Madueke. If England do well, and these players do well, and England supports sing the praises of Saka, Eze, I think that might soften the people who resist backing Kemi because her name isn't English enough.

Some well-made points. I'm a Labour supporter, but have respect for what Badenoch is trying to do and how she's doing it. Reform will remain the biggest threat to to the Tories, while the Green threat to Labour hasn't fully materialised, if these elections are to go by. Labour needs to move left and stop chasing Reform voters. As Reform self-destructs and Farage is found out, the Tories will continue to be Labour's main opposition and we'll be back to 'traditional' two-party politics.

Edited May 9May 9 by brewsterbudgen
Grammar

21 minutes ago, Eloquent pilgrim said:

You make a good point. I have already spoken to two friends in the UK that voted Reform in theses elections; they both said they would have voted for Restore Britain if it was not so early in the Party’s infancy, and consequently a possible wasted vote.

They both said that by the time of the next General election, they hoped that Rupert Lowe will have formed some kind of allegiance with Reform, so that the anti-immigration vote becomes coordinated rather than split.

Yeah I think it will be a two step process.

1. Vote Reform to remove Labour and put the brakes on the decline. 2028.

2. Vote Restore to clean up the mess once and for all. 2032.

21 minutes ago, brewsterbudgen said:

Labour needs to move left and stop chasing Reform voters

You have to be kidding. Labour have already moved much too far to the left, which is why they are loosing all the real working class labour supporters that were the very foundation of the party; and only retaining the metropolitan luvvies that are not traditional Labour voters, just anti Tory.

Starmer is completely under the control of his left-wing backbenchers, and doesn’t have the cojones to face them down. When he tried to rein in the out of control welfare budget, they blocked him. The left in the Labour party is why they have scrapped the 2 child benefit cap, the payment that benefits the families of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin, that make up 79% of families with 3 or more children.

Not sure how much further to the left you want them to go; you are obviously not a traditional Labour party voter.

16 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

It's always the Tories fault even when they're not the topic of the conversation. 😄

It's like American Liberals with Trump. They'll manage to squeeze him in somewhere.

An unhealthy obsession.

You blamed Labour.

45 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

It's always the Tories fault even when they're not the topic of the conversation. 😄

It's like American Liberals with Trump. They'll manage to squeeze him in somewhere.

An unhealthy obsession.

Ha ha you mentioned T not me !

Are you OK

20 hours ago, BarraMarra said:

Wait and see Torquayfan the people want Reform we want the UK back under UK laws not run from Brussels, we want all illegals that invaded the Country removed immediatly, and we want homes for us not given to illegal invaders, we want the ECHR removed so rapists cannot abuse the system claiming human rights. This is part of what Reform has promissed so we will have to wait.

Is there anything else you want to run the country besides the anti immigrant angle or will you be solely voting based on this? What about tax, energy, health, education and defense? Any thoughts on that or is it primarily down to foreigners and rapists for you?

5 minutes ago, Eloquent pilgrim said:

Not sure how much further to the left you want them to go; you are obviously not a traditional Labour party voter.

He's the new type.

Pro immigration to drive wages down for big business and putting pressure on public services that the working class rely on.

Undermining British workers. Driving them into poverty. When they object he calls them racist.

The antithesis of what Labour used to stand for.

Revolting.

I'm more interested in losing our identity and free speach, I care about the Invaders arriving all young fighting age who are not checked for Isis, Al Quida membership, I care about these men who come from Country's with no regard whatsoever to Females and bring there Culture to the UK where they believe its ok to Rape kids its not our Culture. Starmer and Co have destroyed Britain in under 18 Months, anyone challenging Starmer is Sacked or silenced. Starmer has no interest in smashing the Boats as promissed with over 200,000 now arrived since 2018. I don't need to go into his false promisses and lies its all known. He will not take advice on why they lost most of there seats as he said " I will remain PM into the next GE and see the job through I will not walk away " Do what is best and Resighn now Starmer we cannot suffer for another 2 years.

Reform will lose heavily at the next general election, since this will force them in power locally. Labour should push full forward with a return to EU and show that Brexit increased illegal immigration.

2 hours ago, Hamus Yaigh said:

Is there anything else you want to run the country besides the anti immigrant angle or will you be solely voting based on this? What about tax, energy, health, education and defense? Any thoughts on that or is it primarily down to foreigners and rapists for you?

Taxes, any company that does business in the UK pays tax in the UK

Energy, use coal and oil, forget climate change nonsense

Health, remove all foreign nationals from working in or using

Education, remove all foreign nationals from working, only accept the children of citizens, no foreign students.

Defense, get rid of all the armed forces.

Land reform,

Only British citizens allowed to own, all land to be owned by citizens, no ownership by companies.

All the charities owning land to be disbanded, and the land distributed to citizens.

Why should we in the UK have our rights and laws run from Brussels ? Our fishing Fleet is gone thanks to European policy. Ciminals that should be deported to there country of origin allowed to remain under ECHR rules. These are some of the main reasons why Reform or Rupert lowe's party are fighting for and the current local election results show this. Labour will carry on destoying what we have left.

2 hours ago, Hamus Yaigh said:

Any thoughts on that or is it primarily down to foreigners and rapists for you?

Therefore the success of reform and in the future possibly restore. Immigration is the scapegoat.

1 hour ago, stevenl said:

Labour should push full forward with a return to EU and show that Brexit increased illegal immigration.

Is that a cunning plan to win back the millions of traditional working class Labour voters that have just voted for Reform instead; you know, all those ones that were sneered at by the Metropolitan labour elites for voting for Brexit …. top class critical thinking that little gem.

2 hours ago, BarraMarra said:

Why should we in the UK have our rights and laws run from Brussels ? Our fishing Fleet is gone thanks to European policy. Ciminals that should be deported to there country of origin allowed to remain under ECHR rules. These are some of the main reasons why Reform or Rupert lowe's party are fighting for and the current local election results show this. Labour will carry on destoying what we have left.

The UK's laws are not made and run from Brussels. The UK can choose whether to adopt EU law.

The ECHR is a completely separate and different entity to the EU and is based in Strasbourg, not Brussels. Unlike EU Directives and Regulations, there is no legal obligation for signatories to ECHR convention to 'convert' it into national law, however, it is expected that the national laws of signatories are consistent with the tenets of the convention.

The idea that simply leaving the ECHR will be the panacea for all of the UK's problems has about as much credibility as the mistaken belief that sunny uplands awaited the UK after Brexit.

8 hours ago, Tidal wave said:

Robust? easily got around is not robust is it.

Under 18s generally don't have credit cards or such to buy the services. Daddy can i have a vpn - dad NO ! The free ones are pretty much rubbish.

5 hours ago, JonnyF said:

He's the new type.

Pro immigration to drive wages down for big business and putting pressure on public services that the working class rely on.

Undermining British workers. Driving them into poverty. When they object he calls them racist.

The antithesis of what Labour used to stand for.

Revolting.

The deafening silence by a certain shadow poster speaks volumes...you know who I mean 😆

Now the human rights brigade are onto the french Police infringing the illegals rights due to them slashing rubber boats heading to the UK.