Reform-run council could stop solar and wind farms
Newly-elected Reform UK councillors have been celebrating after they swept to power and took control of Staffordshire County Council.
Party leader Nigel Farage spoke to members at the County Showground after results came in and he listed some of the decisions they could make.
He told them they could say no to a proposed wind farm for Staffordshire Moorlands and a solar farm in Cheadle - and also cut funding spent on asylum seekers.
"I wish you all the luck in the world," he said. "It won't be easy, it will be a learning curve, but it is an incredible opportunity."
The final tally for Staffordshire shows Reform now has 49 out of 62 seats after winning 41% of the overall vote.
Going into the election, Reform had no councillors in the county and the Conservatives held 53 of the 62 seats.
Local elections 2025 in maps and charts
Live: Local elections latest from across England
Farage branded the authority under the previous Conservative administration as "very woke".
He said: "Maybe a bit of a warning if you do work for Staffordshire County Council and you are involved in climate change policy, or involved with DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), or anything like that, imay be time to go and look for a different job."
He added: "Here in Staffordshire we are now in charge.
"County councils are there to perform basic functions for taxpayers. We want to slim down the size of local government and re-prioritise it on what its job really is.
"You will judge us, quite rightly, on how we do."
Martin Murray, Reform UK's Staffordshire county co-ordinator and new councillor for Cannock town, said the feeling was "one of excitement, exhilaration and anticipation to get started to do that work".
He said: "I knew the day was coming up when we were going to take control of this council. I could feel it across the streets of the whole county.
"We have gone beyond expectations and we thank everybody for that vote of confidence and we will deliver back to it."
Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Reform wins control of Staffordshire County Council
Staffordshire County Council
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
43 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Conservatives disown Liz Truss's mini-budget
The Conservatives will "never again" put the UK's economic stability at risk by making "promises we cannot afford", the shadow chancellor will say, as his party seeks to distance itself from former Prime Minister Liz Truss's mini-budget. In a speech, Mel Stride will disown Truss's £45bn package of tax cuts, which spooked financial markets and led to the former Tory PM's resignation in 2022. Stride will say "mistakes were recognised" but acknowledge "the damage to our credibility is not so easily undone". Hitting back, Truss said she had a plan to "turbocharge the economy" and accused Stride of bowing to "failed Treasury Orthodoxy". She accused Stride of being "a creature of the system," adding: "When he served alongside me as Treasury minister, he always went along with officials." The mini-budget was delivered by then Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng in September 2022, after Truss won a Tory leadership contest to become prime minister. The plan, which included big tax cuts and subsidies to reduce energy bills, shook confidence in the UK's financial credibility, led to a rise in mortgage rates and a fall in the pound's value. Truss, who did not ask the UK's independent forecaster to assess her economic plans, admitted "parts of our mini-budget went further and faster than markets were expecting" and stood down after 49 days in office. The mini-budget was scrapped and Rishi Sunak - who had criticised Truss's promises to fund tax cuts with borrowing - succeeded her as prime minister. Labour accused the Conservatives of crashing the economy in 2023 and has repeatedly used Truss's mini-budget as an attack line. Distancing the Tories from the mini-budget, Stride will say: "For a few weeks, we put at risk the very stability which Conservatives had always said must be carefully protected. "The credibility of the UK's economic framework was undermined by spending billions on subsidising energy bills and tax cuts, with no proper plan for how this would be paid for." And ahead of Chancellor Rachel Reeves's spending review next week, Stride will accuse her of "abandoning" financial responsibility. The current Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch was trade secretary in Truss's government in 2022. Stride - who was a key ally of Sunak when he was PM - will say it will take time and honesty for the Conservatives to rebuild trust with voters. "So let me be clear: never again will the Conservative Party undermine fiscal credibility by making promises we cannot afford," Stride will say. In a furious response, Truss argued her economic plan "provided the only pathway for the Conservatives to avoid a catastrophic defeat" in last year's general election. Truss added: "As it was, Mel Stride and too many fellow travellers in the Conservative parliamentary party supported an economic policy that backed high immigration, raised taxes to a 70-year high and pursued unaffordable Net Zero policies - and the electorate delivered a devastating verdict on that record last summer. "Until Mel Stride admits the economic failings of the last Conservative government, the British public will not trust the party with the reins of power again." In his speech, Stride will also take aim at Reform UK and its leader Nigel Farage. Last month, Farage - whose party is leading in national polls - set out plans to restore the winter fuel allowance, scrap the two-child benefit limit and lift the salary level at which people start paying income tax to £20,000. The shadow chancellor will say Reform's "economic prescription is pure populism". "It doubles down on the 'magic money tree' we thought had been banished with Jeremy Corbyn," Stride will say. Responding to Mel Stride, Reform UK Deputy Leader Richard Tice said his party would "take no lectures on economics from a party" that raised "government spending to 70-year highs and shrank economic growth to 70-year lows". "Meanwhile we unearth Tory-run councils wasting £30 million on a bridge to nowhere," Tice said. They can never be trusted again." The Liberal Democrats accused the Conservatives of attacking Farage's party for "the same fantasy economics" they had pursued. Deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: "It's insulting that the Conservatives think a few warm words will fool people into forgiving them for all the damage they did to the economy and people's livelihoods." How much market chaos did the mini-budget cause? We want to make it easier to have children - Farage Reeves admits some will lose out in spending review
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Ed Miliband is laying a trap for Nigel Farage
If Reform UK wins the next election, scrapping net zero is first on their list of policies. Party leader Nigel Farage believes the move could save tens of billions over the next parliament, freeing up funds for tax breaks and benefits boosts. Labour's Ed Miliband, on the other hand, appears to be building his platform on preventing this coming to pass. If Labour can block Reform by triumphing at the ballot box, that's all well and good. If it can't, then there are other tools. As the New Statesman has noted, Miliband's newfound enthusiasm for community wind projects may partly be an attempt to 'future-proof' net zero, pushing things through today that will be tricky to unwind tomorrow. Underhand, possibly, but potentially effective. And it's an approach we could well see expand to other elements of the policy in the near future. Reform's targeted savings from the transition to net zero are already under fire. While the party believes it's possible to save £225bn over the next parliament, the Institute for Government (whose report the figures are partly based on) has argued that some of this sum constitutes private sector spending. Just as important, however, is the question of how much of it will be easily cut. Depending on which analysis you follow, spending over the rest of this parliament could average somewhere between £13bn and £19bn per year, with the latest Climate Change Committee Carbon Budget suggesting that anywhere between £6bn and £23bn of public funding could be needed in 2035. Over the period to 2050, one Office for Budget Responsibility report (now a little old) estimated the net cost at £344bn to the public sector, with the downside risk at £553bn. These are large sums. The upper end – £22bn or so each year – would be enough to fund the reversal of the winter fuel payments cuts (£1.65bn per year), raise the personal allowance by £1,250 (£11.1bn), scrap the two-child benefit cap (£3.4bn) and add another 0.2pc of GDP onto the defence budget – covering almost half the gap between Labour's distant 3pc ambition and the mooted Nato 3.5pc target. It's also the case that these sums could be underestimated. The Climate Change Committee's analysis shows net zero coming in at a net annual cost of 0.2pc of GDP per year over the next quarter century, or roughly £4bn per year, with the costs front-loaded and net savings towards 2050. But underlying these figures are some very optimistic assumed cost curves for the future price of electricity capacity, including a forecast for offshore wind unit costs to fall by 39pc over the next 25 years. Now, this might happen. But it's worth noting that the UK's 2023 auction round for renewable energy projects resulted in no bids at all for offshore wind. These auctions award 'contracts for difference', which pay producers a set rate per unit of electricity produced. If the market rate is below that price, the producer receives a subsidy. If it's above it, then they pay the difference back. Barring a period between 2021 and 2023 when gas prices spiked over tensions and then outright war in Ukraine, these payments have tended to be large and positive: producers receive above-market-rate prices. Despite this, offshore wind was a no-go. In the subsequent auction round, the Government raised the maximum price on offer by 66pc, with the eventual contracts awarded coming in at 58pc above the previous record low. Even this wasn't quite enough. Ørsted's Hornsea 4 project won its funding in that round in September 2024. By March this year, it had been discontinued on the grounds of 'adverse developments relating to continued increase of supply chain costs, higher interest rates and an increase in the risk to construct and operate Hornsea 4 on the planned timeline'. Poof! 2.4 gigawatts (GW) of planned capacity vanished into the ether, just as the plan is to boost it from 15GW to 88GW by 2040. It's a neat illustration of one of net zero's risks. If other technologies also stall out on cost reductions, if delays to projects push the mooted benefits further back into the future, if higher interest rates raise the cost of capital, or if the costs of projects slip in typical fashion, then the costs of the transition could rise further still. And that uncertainty makes scrapping net zero even more appealing for Reform. A policy which they believe will cut energy bills – contracts for difference, the renewables obligation feed-in tariffs and the guarantee of origin system have added £280 to annual household costs between them, before we get to balancing payments and transmission costs – is also a way to work towards balancing the books and reducing fiscal risks. It's a win-win. If, that is, they can pull it off. The concern will be that Labour is trying to tie their hands, setting up contracts and legal commitments well in advance of the next election that will make it extremely hard for a future government to change course. There are early signs the party is moving in this direction, with the next auction round for renewable subsidies taking the approach of inviting bids first towards a targeted capacity, then setting a cash budget after reviewing them. Combined with Miliband's rush to complete decarbonisation of the grid by 2030, and increasing pressure on the private sector to follow along with schemes incentivising electrification of home heating and transport, and the intention could well be to tie Reform's hands. However, Richard Tice, deputy leader of Reform UK and the party's energy spokesman, isn't worried. 'Miliband is absolutely trying to lock us into his net zero plans,' he told me on Wednesday. 'And they're trying to tie up as many contracts as possible now to bind our hands when we win office – you can see that with the switch in renewable energy policy from cash budgets to capacity targets'. But just as Labour can play games with contracts and commitments, so too can Reform. 'We'll claw the public's money back by charging a windfall tax equal to the subsidy awarded, and bar producers from charging that tax back to the consumer,' Tice said. 'Wind farms that need promises of huge public subsidies to finish construction won't be economically viable. And battery storage systems will be outright banned on health and safety grounds; they are dangerous and toxic.' The result is a battle of pre-commitments. Miliband appears to be urging the private sector to pile in on net zero plans, waving the prospect of taxpayer funds at potential partners, and finding ways to make legally binding agreements that will be hard to unpick. Reform, however, isn't planning to unpick them, but to instead follow Miliband's example in the North Sea: restrict operating conditions, tax profits, and drive the value of projects to zero. The effect is to introduce considerable political risk into net zero projects, but potentially also to tempt Labour into finding ways to hand out funds upfront. All eyes on this space: whether Reform's pledges can succeed in scaring off the renewables sector could determine its ability to win the next election. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Hamilton Spectator
2 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Canadians divided on whether U.S. is an ‘ally' or ‘enemy' country: Poll
OTTAWA - Faced with a trade war they didn't start, Canadians are divided on whether they see the United States as an 'enemy' or an 'ally,' a new poll suggests. The Leger poll, which was conducted online and can't be assigned a margin of error, surveyed more than 1,500 people between May 30 and June 1. Almost a third of respondents said they view the U.S. as a 'neutral country,' while 27 per cent said they consider it an 'ally' and 26 per cent see it as an 'enemy country.' Just over a third of men said they consider the U.S. an ally, compared with one in five women. Almost 30 per cent of women said they view the U.S. as an enemy, compared with 22 per cent of men. Older Canadians, those at least 55 years of age, were more likely to consider the U.S. an enemy than younger Canadians. Regionally Albertans were most likely to consider the U.S. an ally while Ontarians and British Columbians were most likely to see it as an enemy. The difference is starkest between political party supporters, with 44 per cent of Conservative supporters saying they view the U.S. as an ally, compared with 17 per cent of Liberal supporters and 12 per cent of NDP supporters said the same. Comparatively 16 per cent of Conservative supporters said they view the U.S. as an enemy country, while 36 per cent of Liberal supporters and 41 per cent of NDP supporters said the same. U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday to double his levies on steel and aluminum to 50 per cent. He claimed the measure will protect the country's national security and domestic industries. Prime Minister Mark Carney has said his government will need to take 'some time' to craft a response to the increased U.S. tariffs. The number of Canadians that report seeing the U.S. as an enemy country has dropped by six points since mid-March. At that time, 32 per cent of survey respondents told Leger they viewed the country as an enemy. The number of Canadians that view the U.S. as an ally also decreased by two percentage points since March, from 29 to 27 per cent, while the number that view it as a neutral country increased by six percentage points, from 24 to 30 per cent. Andrew Enns, Leger's executive vice-president for Central Canada, said that, broadly speaking, the patterns haven't changed much since the organization asked the question in February — when 27 per cent of respondents said they viewed the U.S. as an enemy and 30 per cent said they viewed it as an ally. Enns said the decline in the number of people saying the U.S. is an enemy likely reflects the overall sentiment on tariffs. 'It's still obviously there and, you know, clearly now we're dealing with higher steel tariffs, but the commentary coming from the White House and the Trump administration seems to have dissipated a bit and that's probably helping just tone things down,' he said. Enns said Canada also has a new prime minister with a mandate that might 'take the edge off things.' 'I think that just keeps things more at a moderate level, and I think that reflects in people maybe feeling a little less threatened by the U.S.,' Enns said. Enns said political and business leaders have also sent a consistent message that the U.S. remains an important trading partner. He said that may encourage Canadians to believe there's a way to 'work things out.' The polling industry's professional body, the Canadian Research Insights Council, says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 5, 2025.
