Reform UK loses senior supporter as Farage battles for Tory council seats

A prominent Reform UK supporter has quit the party, urging Nigel Farage to "get a grip" according to the Independent and the Mirror. The departure arrives as Reform campaigns to take two council wards from the Conservatives, GB News reports.

The Independent and Mirror describe the resignation letter as containing "explosive" claims about internal party conflict, though neither outlet quotes the specific accusations. The timing - as Reform fights local battles against the Tories - suggests the fracture is organisational rather than ideological.

Reform's difficulty is structural. The party exists to disrupt the Conservative vote, which it has done with considerable success at Westminster. But council politics requires sustained organisation, candidate vetting, and the unglamorous work of bin collections and planning committees. A party built around a single figurehead and a single issue - immigration and national sovereignty - must now build the machinery to govern at the parish pump level. That requires people, and people have opinions about how things should be run.

The Conservative Party tore itself apart over Europe for thirty years before losing power. Reform is attempting to avoid that fate while growing fast. Watch whether Farage centralises control further or delegates - and whether more senior figures follow this one out of the door.