We’re in the last day of campaigning for the 2026 local elections here in the UK so I wanted to write down some thoughts.

If you’ve been paying any attention to the media you’d be forgiven for thinking Nigel Farage and his Reform party are going to sweep all before them. This impression becomes more exaggerated on social media which is awash with pro-Reform bots and trolls who pile in from nowhere at the mere mention of Farage’s name.

But is Reform’s support really that strong in the real world?

I’ve been staying in Southport on Merseyside these past few days, walking miles around the town to explore old haunts, whilst doing so I’ve been keeping my eye out for expressions of support for the different parties. This is totally unscientific of course. Most people keep their politics to themselves. However, some supporters of various parties display their allegiance through the use of placards in the gardens (or in extreme cases, flags!).

So, I’ve been looking out for these across the town and noticed that there’s an almost even spread between Lib-Dem, Labour and Green parties, but overt support for Reform is noticeably absent. In fact, I could only find one Reform placard. Well, I assume it was Reform as only broken stub remained! It was in the garden of a large, well to do house on the edge of the town centre.

Across the road in another garden there flew the tattered remnants of a Union flag which rather set the scene in that part of town.

Meanwhile, some Lib-Dem supporters displayed a sense of humour as well as allegience!

We’ll know the outcome of the elections on Friday. Whilst Reform are expected to perform well due to dissatisfaction with the Government I can’t help but wonder if their support has been overstated. There’s certainly not much of it evident on the ground, and their local election material is hardly convincing. One of their leaflets claims they’re going to ‘reclaim’ Southport beach, but don’t explain what that even means. Reclaim it from what?

Southport is part of Sefton, which has been run by Labour since 2012 who currently hold 51 of the 66 seats. Reform currently have 1, the same as the Greens and ‘your party’. The largest opposition group is the Lib-Dems who have 9 seats. In third place are the Tories, who have just 4.

From 1974-86 Sefton was Tory run, it slipped to no overall control between 1986-2012, then Labour won a majority. It would take a massive swing for Sefton to become a Reform-controlled Council.

I’ll watch this one with interest.

Back in West Yorkshire, Calderdale council has 51 members and is Labour controlled (26 members). The Tories are the largest opposition group with 8 and the Lib-Dems next with 6. The Greens have 3, as do Reform. Calderdale’s been Labour controlled since 2019. Before that there’s been long periods where there’s been no overall control with a couple of periods when the Tories were in charge (1975-80 and 2000-2002). Wandering around at home I’ve observed the same phenomenon, hardly any sign (literally) of Reform support – apart from one large converted farmhouse up at Norland where someone’s flying both the Union and Reform flags!

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Cheers,

Paul