Nigel Farage tonight admitted Reform UK expected to do better at July’s general election – but he is aiming to win ‘hundreds’ of council seats next year.
Speaking to reporters after his keynote speech at Reform’s conference in Birmingham, Mr Farage said that voters ‘punished’ his party at the general election for having ‘bad apples’ among their ranks.
A week before polling day, Reform’s campaign plunged into meltdown after undercover footage revealed shocking comments by members of Mr Farage’s local team in Clacton.
Filming by an undercover investigator showed Reform figures advocating shooting Channel migrants as ‘target practice’ for Army recruits.
They also said they party would ‘bring back the noose’, branded Rishi Sunak a ‘f****** p***’ and called for Muslims to be ejected from mosques so they can be turned into Wetherspoons pubs.
Mr Farage admitted the final week of the general election campaign was a ‘disaster’ for his party.
Nigel Farage admitted Reform UK expected to do better at July’s general election – but he is aiming to win ‘hundreds’ of council seats next year
Speaking to reporters after his keynote speech at Reform’s conference in Birmingham , Mr Farage said that voters ‘punished’ his party at the general election for having ‘bad apples’
Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice also delivered a speech at the conference today
After using today’s conference to set out his plans to ‘professionalise’ Reform, Mr Farage said: ‘What I have to make sure, we have to make sure is we don’t have a repetition of what happened in the general election.
‘Because the last seven or eight days, it was just a disaster. We had expected to poll 5 per cent more than we did and the electorate punished us.
‘The electorate punished us for having these bad apples in there. So I will do my upmost.
‘We can’t be clearer, if you are a racist bigot, there are other people that you can be attracted to but it’s not us.’
Delegates attend the Reform UK conference at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre
A member of the crowd wearing a Union Jack hat and glasses watches on at the conference
Mr Farage is aiming to turn Reform into an ‘election-winning machine’ and hopes to copy the success of the Liberal Democrats in forming successful local campaign teams.
Asked what would mark success for Reform at next year’s local elections across England, Mr Farage said: ‘I’ve got my own little private thought on that. We will need to win hundreds for it to be a success, it will have to be hundreds.
‘That’s the goal, that’s the aim. Organisationally that’s a huge feat but we do have 266 branches that either have been set up or will be, they’re in process.’