Nigel Farage takes brutal swipe at Kemi Badenoch after huge by-election wins

Nigel Farage has lashed out at Kemi Badenoch as the local election battle heats up. The Reform UK leader posted his latest barb against his Conservative Party rival on X, telling his followers: "Since Kemi Badenoch became Tory leader, Reform UK have gained more seats in council by-elections than any other party."

Mr Farage's criticism appears to be backed up by the evidence. An Express analysis of Open Council Data shows that since Mrs Badenoch was elected leader on November 2 last year, Reform UK has picked up 100 council ward seats compared with 51 for the Tories.

While the numbers appear to support Mr Farage's post claiming victory over all other parties, it does not take into the lager number of council ward seats won by independent candidates, a total of 226, according to the Express analysis.

The same analysis shows Labour has won 48 council by-elections, the Liberal Democrats 34, the Green Party 11 and others, including the SNP, Plaid and DUP, 26.

While the numbers show Reform picking up most seats, they also show the party lost seven seats. This compares with Tory losses of 151, with a number of those seats switching to Mr Farage's party.

Some X users took issue with Mr Farage's post, sharing analysis of aggregate results of 230 council by-elections since the General Election last year by Election Maps UK.

The total differs to Open Council Data's and dates to before Mrs Badenoch took the helm of the Conservative Party.

Nevertheless, Election Maps UK shows Reform picking up 14 council seats since July 4, 2024. This compares to the Tories on 61 (+24), Labour on 74 (-42), Lib Dems seeing no change on 46, the Greens on 11 (+3) and Independents also seeing no change on 12. The SNP added two council seats to take their total to 10, Plaid saw no change on four.

The Conservative Party has been approached for comment.

Reform is standing more candidates in next month's local elections than either Labour or the Conservatives - though no party has managed to find enough people to contest every seat.

Voters in 23 local authorities in England go the polls on May 1 to choose their new councillors. It is the first big test at the ballot box for political parties since Labour won the general election in July 2024.

A total of 1,641 council seats across the 23 authorities are up for grabs. Reform is standing 1,631 candidates, according to PA news agency analysis of nomination data published by local authorities. It means the party is contesting 99.4% of seats.

The Conservatives have 1,596 candidates (97.3% of seats) while Labour has 1,543 (94.0%). Further behind are the Liberal Democrats, with 1,396 candidates (85.1%) and the Greens, with 1,183 (72.1%).

Mr Farage's latest criticism comes after he rebuffed a suggestion from Mrs Badenoch that Conservative councillors could go into coalition with Reform UK after next month's local elections.

The Conservative leader has consistently ruled out any national deal with Reform, whose leader Mr Farage has vowed to "destroy" the Tory party.

On Thursday, Mrs Badenoch suggested the picture could be different locally, but Mr Farage said his party had "no intention" of forming coalitions with the Tories "at any level".

The Tory leader told BBC Breakfast: "I've seen Conservatives go into coalition with Labour, with Liberal Democrats, with Independents.

"You don't get to have a rerun of an election at local level, so what I'm telling local leaders across the country (is) they have to do what is right for the people in their local area."

Mrs Badenoch added that local Tories would also need to "stick to Conservative principles" such as "sound money" and "not excessive government intervention".

But Clacton MP Mr Farage later rejected the idea. He said: "The Tories broke Britain nationally for 14 years, and their councils continue to break local communities with the highest taxes ever and worst services.

"Reform have no intention in forming coalitions with the Tories at any level. We encourage everyone who wants real change to vote Reform on May 1."