Is it me, or it is that the Reform UK political momentum could be running out of steam? It seems that despite having just four MPs in parliament, most of the mainstream media in the UK have been playing up the prospects of a Reform-led national government at the next general election.
Not a day goes by without the likes of leader Nigel Farage and Richard Tice been given the oxygen of publicity for their opinions on government policy. It’s as if the other political parties (including the Conservatives(!)) don’t really matter at the moment.
Reform recently launched their biggest ever local government camapign at a rally in Birmingham last week, hoping to ride on a wave of ongoing public and political discontent with the present Labour government. However, if recent council by-election results are anything to go by, their hopes of winning control of councils, let alone any seats at all in May, could be limited. At time of posting they won just 12 out of a possible 224 contested since last year’s general election, and overall they have just 119 councillors out of a current total of 18,725.
Reform UK’s won (still) just 12 out of 224 council by-elections since the General Election.2025 so far:0 out of 3 elections0 out of 60 out of 20 out of 91 out of 50 out of 61 out of 70 out of 13 out of 60 out of 70 out of 20 out of 1
— Reform Party UK Exposed (@reformexposed.bsky.social) 2025-03-29T21:16:55.395Z
In the forthcoming contests, Reform hope to do well at the Welsh Assembly against what some commentators call Labour’s tired and unpopular political machine, but they will certainly be dead on arrival in the Scottish Parliament with the SNP set to remain dominant there. That leaves the elections in some parts of England outside London.
Unpopular opinion: when the huge number of Labour seats fall in May, the party set to take advantage will be the Conservatives, who hopefully keep the hopeless Kemi Badenoch in her job as leader. Reform will get their successes, but their continued grifting on the current issues facing the UK may yet trip them up…again.