Cleverly Calls Reform a Cult of Personality Despite Local Election Gains

Shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverly argued Friday that the Conservatives remain the biggest party on the right of British politics, even after Reform UK made huge gains at their expense in Thursday's elections.

He claimed Reform was not a centre-right party but a "cult of personality." "Nigel [Farage] is not a policy, being angry at stuff is not a policy," he said.

Reform picked up more than 1,450 council seats and gained control of 14 councils. Those came from the Conservatives, including in Suffolk and Essex, but also in traditional Labour areas such as Sunderland and Barnsley.

The party came second in the Welsh Parliament elections and joint second with Labour in Scotland.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said there had been "historic vote shifts." He added: "The old ideas of left and right have literally been blown apart in the last 24 hours."

Reform deputy leader Richard Tice said his party had faced "more scrutiny than anybody else before." He added: "But isn't it interesting that despite all of the scrutiny and the attacks on Nigel, on me, on our candidates, on our councils, voters have said, we want more Reform please."

Conservative support in England fell 11 points from 2022, when this round of local elections was last held. The party lost more than half of the seats it was defending and did particularly badly in areas with the highest Reform vote.

It made some gains, however, winning back traditional strongholds in the London seats of Westminster and Wandsworth, which Labour had taken in previous elections.

Sir James, who lost to Kemi Badenoch in the 2024 Tory leadership contest, said: "All of us, Kemi [Badenoch] included, would like to see progress happen faster, but remember, we're less than two years from a really significant electoral defeat, and nobody is expecting that we turn that around overnight."

He said he had "no doubt" his party would gain seats at next year's elections. "I am absolutely confident we'll see the acceleration of support coming to the Conservatives, coming back to us from previous Conservative voters, and coming to us for the first time from voters who are looking at the alternatives,"

"Reform don't know where they stand on cutting the welfare bill, don't have a defence spokesperson... they are not delivering a centre-right, right-wing position. What we've seen with Reform, and we will see that again, and we'll also see this with the Greens, is where they do get elected they let the voters down and those voters start rejecting them."