Nigel Farage under more pressure following Elon Musk comments as 10 Reform councillors resign in protest

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has been dealt another blow when it comes to his leadership, as 10 councillors have resigned en masse just days after Twitter/X owner Elon Musk said Farage was “not up to the job” when it comes to being party leader.

The tech billionaire’s remarks came after the politician distanced himself from far-right criminal Tommy Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon), who Musk wants freed from prison, where he is currently serving time for contempt of court.

And earlier this week, Reform’s candidate in last year’s London mayoral election, Howard Cox, left the party and claimed in an interview with GB News he was told to “keep clear of the Tommy Robinson issue or I will be expelled from the party”.

Now, The Guardian has seen a statement from 10 Derbyshire councillors in which they make clear their intention to resign from the party because they cannot continue “in good conscience” under Farage’s leadership.

“We believe that the current party management is either incompetent or malevolent and we have lost all confidence in the leadership and its structures,” it reads, with the outlet reporting it also accuses the party leader of “disloyalty” to its members.

The councillors also, reportedly, allege Reform UK is being run in an “autocratic manner” and raised issues around democratising the organisation, which was set up as a company and “entrepreneurial political start-up” with Farage as the director and majority shareholder.

According to Open Council Data UK, Reform UK has 50 councillors, meaning – as some Twitter/X users have pointed out – the party has just lost a fifth of its representatives at local authority level:

Farage has since clapped back at the move by the group of councillors ahead of the party’s south east of England conference, claiming in comments to BBC Newsnight that none of them had “passed vetting”, and that the party had a “rogue branch”.

“I think you’ll find, in many cases, there will have to be by-elections because they were not legitimately put forward,” he said.

Meanwhile, party chairman Zia Yusuf wrote on Twitter/X the “leader” of the councillors was suspended for “nominating candidates that failed vetting”, and Reform “stands for the highest standards in public life”.

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