Farage blames 'staff incompetence' for half-empty Reform event

To lose one leader of a council might be considered unfortunate. To lose two could be considered careless. To lose three... ...may be evidence of a deeper malaise What the hell is it when you've lost four in just 18 months? Yeah, they're on their fourth now. Martin Murray, councillor, has resigned this morning as the Reform UK leader in Staffordshire. He will be their fourth leader, or they'll now be on their fourth leader, I should say, in just under 18 months. Let me tell you his statement. It's quite cryptic at the moment, James. We're not entirely sure of the... Exact reasoning, but in his statement he says, following careful consideration, I've concluded it is in the best interests of Staffordshire, our residents, and this county council for me to step down as leader of Staffordshire and leader of the Reform UK group. It was a difficult decision, but in the interests of Staffordshire, the council, and those we serve. must come first, and it does go on a bit. But he's confirmed he's staying with Reform UK, but many are scratching their heads. I think it's worth mentioning the significance of this council, James. When Reform did extremely well back in May of 2025, the elections there, it was actually the first visit that Nigel Farage made in terms of the various councils he had won. And this was actually him speaking on the eve of polling when he said it was the wokest council in Britain. This massive majority government here in Staffordshire has gone totally woke and it's spending money on diversity, equity and inclusion. It is spending money on climate change initiatives. And let me tell you something, if we win this council tomorrow, There will be no more working from home. They will come into the office or we'll get rid of them. I'm reminded of Dishonest Bob Jenrick doing a thing the other day at some meeting where he said, stand up if you go to work every day. And no one stood up because there are a lot of pensioners in the room. And of course, that thing about no more working from home is going to be cheered from the rafters. By people who don't work from home, but are at home for most of the day. But it struck me, Henry, before we carry on with the Staffordshire report, that that room that I'm talking about was quite full, the room where no one stood up. The chairs were at least occupied. The press conference yesterday, less so. Yes, it was not very busy yesterday, the press conference with Reform UK. Nigel Farage made a point of, at one point, blaming a member of staff. His own staff. Blaming his own staff as well, in terms of that crowd size. Oh gosh, shall we have a listen? Okay. As for this hall, well, staff incompetence. It's all well and good advertising the businesses, but on Mondays, people who run businesses tend to be rather busy. So it might be easy. Thank On the first Nigel Farage clip, on DEI James, the... My name's Nigel Farage, sorry. It's worth saying there was an FOI request, Freedom of Information, by the local paper... Sorry, let's listen to that again, because this is what rattled sounds like, all right? you. Here we go. As for this haul, well, staff incompetence. It's all well and good, advertising the businesses, but on Mondays, people who run businesses tend to be rather busy. So it might be easy. Yeah, they're not busy if you've invited them to your business summit, mate, and they're keen to show their support and listen to what ideas it is that you have to help the businesses. Every other political party manages to get business people to turn up for their business summits, but not his. And then immediately a colleague gets thrown under the bus. Thank Anyway, quite a lot of empty seats. There were a lot of empty seats. On that, the DEI spending, James, there was an FOI request by the local paper you just referencing what Nigel Farage said, the Express and Star, which showed that no council officers were working on equality, diversity and inclusion. very And there were four who had climate change as part of their portfolio. That had an annual total, much. their salaries of £150 million. £3,000 out of a total revenue budget of £735 million. On to the council leader. So the first leader when reform won was Ian Cooper. Ian won. Ian Cooper. And he had previously, 100 days into the role, said basically the job was like being a boring bank manager. He said, though, his mission was to keep under the radar by getting on with his job because that's what people want and that he'll demonstrate professionalism and competence. He said he wants to deliver an incremental revolution. We didn't last long because in December... Right, that's the news, are we out? Nadhim Zahawi, born in Iraq, as you say. Hope Not Hate also found posts where he'd called the London mayor a narcissistic Pakistani and said migrants were intent on colonising the UK. There are a few more as well. What attracts these people to Nigel Farage's parties happens time and time and time again, even with that absolutely first-class vetting. That's something you could spend five million quid on. Who was next? So that was Councillor Cooper. Then we had Councillor Large, Chris Large. And he stood down six days after he was. He was elected leader, citing bereavement. Although, concurrently alongside that, there was also allegedly racist activity on a TikTok account. Now, bear with me, James. He says the TikTok had nothing to do with him directly or that various people used it. Although the TikTok account was named Councillor Chris Large. Oh, He was the cabinet member for finance and the leader. In one comment, it's quite offensive, this, I won't read all of it, but there was one where he said anyone who's not actually white English my should never be trusted to work within our government. OK, there goes Suella Braverman, there goes Zia Yusuf, there goes Layla Cunningham. God. He described the term racist as a left-leaning term used to stop free speech. A lot of racists say that. And Reform declined to comment as to why he wasn't in the party. I just, I mean, in their defence, you'd have to have some pretty impressive vetting to find out. about Councillor Chris Large by looking at a TikTok account in the name of Councillor Chris Large. I mean, you know, we can't set the bar. I mean, that is forensic. So even Sherlock Holmes probably wouldn't think of doing a quick search on TikTok for accounts in the name of Councillor Chris Large if you were vetting someone called Councillor Chris Large. All one word as well, Councillor Chris Large. Councillor Chris Large. He was in... Reform didn't say why he wasn't in the party, but he wasn't in there for much longer. Then we had Martin Murray. In three. Who's the leader of the council until today. Statement that I read right at the start. He spoke with our reporter George Ike at the Reform UK conference last month, and here he is talking up Staffordshire and also responding to that ITV documentary. Oh, yes. Staffordshire lost its beat. And I'll tell you now, Staffordshire is now the beating heart of this country, and that's because reform has come in. We've shown the world that Staffordshire is here. We are now the nation's playground because the amount of tourism, hospitality we've had there has grown, and that's what the difference reform will make just as we get into government. I think the way you know this is a stitch-up is the timing. The timing for that to be released on day one of our conference. Why, if this is such an illegality, why do they hold on to that criminal evidence for so long? It's rather suspect, shall we say, the timing for this. Now, and also, name me another political party in history who is active decisively and as clearly as we have. Within a day have acted, started the inquiry and done the right thing. Let's see what that comes out with. Thank you. And of course the inquiry did find the two members of staff, James. It was Reform UK's own inquiry, but it was hosted by their own people when it cleared their two members of staff. Congratulations to everyone involved. What a fine and transparent process that was. So Martin Murray's gone today. But we don't really know why. We don't really know why. I mean, through the grapevine, it would seem there's been some sort of disagreement. So I'm trying to work out whether that's at a national level or a local level. He's also said to me, I called him up earlier on, he's going to stay with the party. But for how long that lasts for, I'm not entirely sure. So three down. Hayley Coles is the leader today. Congratulations to Hayley Coles. She has... Previously caused a bit of a stew when she was behind a move for an interim ban on displays at libraries, and that display at libraries happened to coincide with Pride, and so there was no Pride or LGBT. So she wanted to ban all displays? All displays. At libraries? At libraries. I suppose it's, you know, one... Step shy of actually getting rid of the books, isn't it? Well, true. That was time with pride. And aside from the leaders, James, can I tell you about a few more councillors very quickly? I wish you would. Yeah, OK, great. Well, we also have Councillor Matthew Wallens, who last month, he was the councillor on Litchfield City North. He's been suspended pending investigation. We don't know why. Who's doing the investigation this time? This is actually a party... Well, there is a party investigation, and I think a council investigation. Oh, OK. Carry on. We have Councillor Lynn Dean, who's independent. She was accused of posting racist comments Racist comments on social media? A member of Nigel Farage's political party? Yes, that's right. Well, shoot me now. She was accused of posting the message, Indigenous Britain is slipping further into the abyss. We will soon reach the point of no return. She said she's getting tired of Muslims, called for mosques to be closed, and there was stuff about specifically directed at... And with praying. People from Africa and black people, they've been deleted, those posts. She's no longer in the party. But somebody who is still in the party, James, and this has been raised to me by a few of the opposition councillors within Staffordshire, is Councillor Peter Mason. He's not only in Reform UK in Staffordshire, he's the cabinet member for Highways. He has apologised for his choice of words, but as I say, still in the party. During 2023 and 2024, when he wasn't a councillor, he had said... In fact, you've probably got it in front of you. I can't read all of that. He's the first one. I hesitate to read them all out, but I mean, it's always about people of colour. He's complaining about a statue of a black woman. He's complaining about Black Lives Matter. He's complaining about rainbows, which of course are the symbol of pride. He's describing people supportive of that as dancing around like fairies. And he's talking about how the police are politically indoctrinated British hating scum. It sounds lovely. He's in charge of the highways in Staffordshire. Yes. And then the other point, away from the councillors, more sort of... Hang on a minute. Oh, sorry. He said he was affected by grief and redundancy at the time. And anyone listening to this who's been affected by grief and redundancy will know that it is a short hop, skip and a jump to becoming a massive misogynistic racist. In fact, I don't know if I've ever met anyone grieving who hasn't got awful things to say about black people. It goes with the territory. We need a bit more sympathy for these. I look forward to the results of that investigation. Oh, there isn't one. There's no, so he's still a cabinet member. And the last thing to mention, James, just as a sort of general overview, in the 10 months up to March of this year, actually, the council received 162 complaints about the behaviour of councillors. That was a 15-fold increase. On the same period the year before, most of these complaints, indeed the vast majority, were made from members of the public and 88% were about reform councillors. They are the largest party. Well, I think we can agree, can't we, that that is record-breaking by the reform-led council in Staffordshire. These are record-breaking statistics, Henry, and therefore a cause, I think, for great celebration. Yes, and I don't think they'll be totally thrilled given that I was watching clips of Ian... Record-breaking, Bernard Manning, record-breaking. When Ian Cooper was first the leader of the council, now they're on their fourth. I don't think they're necessarily going to plan in 18 months. That's roughly, that's much less than a trust. No, more than a trust. It's four trustees per council leader, give or take. Yes, yeah. Yeah, okay.