Pressure on Farage as Reform councillors resign over his leadership

Twelve council members of Reform UK have announced their decision to step down collectively in protest of Nigel Farage's leadership.The resignations, which might occur as early as Friday night, would increase the pressure on the Reform leader following Elon Musk's declaration that he was "not up to the job." The party's southeast convention this weekend is scheduled to be overshadowed by them. In addition to accusing Farage of "disloyalty" to longtime members, the council members said the party was being handled in a "autocratic manner." The party is divided over Tommy Robinson, a far-right activist who Musk supports and is currently in jail.At the party's south-east convention in Esher, Surrey, on Friday night, Farage was scheduled to speak to hundreds of members. Reform is trying to capitalize on the enthusiasm from the general election in order to win hundreds of seats in this year's local elections.However, the resignation of the 12 council members, who collectively hold nine town council seats, five parish council seats, and two district council seats, would result in the loss of a sizable portion of the party's current local authority representatives. Alex Stephenson, who finished second in Amber Valley in the general election with 28% of the vote, is among those from Derbyshire, a Reform target area.In a statement seen by the Guardian, they said they could not continue “in good conscience” under the leadership of Farage, adding: “We believe that the current party management is either incompetent or malevolent, and we have lost all confidence in the leadership and its structures.”They cited a lack of internal democracy, claiming that a new constitution adopted by the party at its annual conference was flawed and that there had been no progress towards a promise by Farage to democratise Reform, which was set up as a company in which he holds a controlling stake.