Latest news with #DarrenGrimes
Sky News AU
4 days ago
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Nigel Farage has ‘rattled' UK PM Keir Starmer
Reform UK Councillor Darren Grimes says UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is 'obsessing' about the Reform UK Party. 'You know you've got them rattled when the PM holds an entire press conference dedicated to Mr Farage,' Mr Grimes told Sky News host Danica De Giorgio. 'While Starmer is obsessing over Reform, he is completely ignoring issues that absolutely matter to ordinary people.'
Sky News AU
4 days ago
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Left is ‘pearl-clutching' after UK council removes Ukrainian and Pride flags
Reform UK Councillor Darren Grimes discusses a Reform-led council removing the Pride and the Ukrainian flag. 'The left are absolutely pearl-clutching, shaken to the very floor,' Mr Grimes told Sky News host Danica De Giorgio. 'Local councils need to get back to basics, focusing on things that matter, not international politics.'
The Guardian
24-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘Posturing': Farage's Reform-quake so far limited to small acts of ‘war on woke'
When Nigel Farage held a victory lap of England after his mammoth local elections win on 1 May, he was characteristically bullish about Reform UK's plan to shake up town halls. The party would send in Elon Musk-style budget-slashing units, he said, while promising to turf out asylum seekers and any civil servants working on climate change or diversity. Anyone who 'thinks they can go on working from home,' he warned, 'I think you better all be seeking alternative careers very, very quickly.' Yet three weeks into power in nine of England's cash-starved local authorities – where Reform UK now runs £8bn worth of public services – Farage's 'Reform-quake' has been limited to smaller but symbolic acts of the 'war on woke'. In Kent and Durham, councils with a combined £1bn of debt, one of Reform's first acts was to take down the Ukrainian flag – hoisted to show solidarity with the war-besieged nation – and vowed not to fly rainbow-coloured flags in support of LGBTQ+ residents. The move caused silent protests in usually colourless county halls as opposition councillors draped themselves in Ukrainian blue and yellow. In Durham, the flag-lowering was branded 'disrespectful and mean-spirited', coming days before this weekend's Pride in Armed Forces event in the city. Darren Grimes, the former GB News presenter who is now deputy leader of Durham county council, said the move was 'anti-tokenism' rather than anti-gay, describing the rainbow flag as 'toxic identity politics'. Farage's party won a historic 677 council seats across England this month, dispatching Labour and Conservative councillors and winning power in areas spanning about 8.3 million people, one in seven of the country's population. The Guardian covered each of the first full council meetings under the new regime – spanning Lancashire, Durham, Kent, Lincolnshire, Staffordshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, and west and north Northamptonshire – in an attempt to gauge how the rhetoric matches the reality. One of Farage's big pledges to axe low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) was delivered in record time although solely on the basis that none of the councils had any of the schemes in place. His plan to sack all diversity staff appears similarly limited, given it relates to barely a handful of roles across all Reform UK's nine areas. The new council leaders, many of whom have never before held political office, were pressed repeatedly on their plans to save money from coffers that have already been cut by more than £2bn since 2011 after losing a fifth of their funding under Conservative austerity measures. There were few substantive answers. 'We will get back to you once we've had the chance to mark your homework,' came the reply from a newly elected Staffordshire councillor when asked for detail on its agenda – a refrain repeated across England. In several regions, Reform UK's first cuts have been limited to excising references to the climate crisis and equality from council offices. Joshua Roberts, a 27-year-old IT entrepreneur and newly elected Reform councillor, defended the decision to remove climate change from his new environment brief in Lancashire. 'It makes complete sense for the change because 80% of Lancashire is rural,' he said. 'We need to protect our lovely countryside instead of these pointless endeavours which are making us all poorer – these net zero policies.' In Lincolnshire, where more than 200,000 homes are at risk of flooding, one of the party's first moves was to abolish its council's flood scrutiny committee, amalgamating it with a much broader environment body. Dave Throup, a former Environment Agency manager, described the move as 'pretty cavalier stuff for a county with one of the highest flood risks in the country'. Councillors voiced concerns that Reform UK will target cuts to local authorities' spiralling special educational needs and disabilities (Send) budgets, after Farage's claim that doctors are 'massively over-diagnosing' children with some conditions. Linden Kemkaran, the Reform leader of Kent county council, said she would put Send provision 'under the microscope'. 'At Reform UK we do not shy away from asking awkward questions,' she added. 'If we can understand why Send diagnoses are rising exponentially every year then perhaps we can help children better.' Some newly elected Reform members appeared already to distance themselves from Farage's bold agenda. Martyn Sutton, a former merchant navy officer turned Tesco worker and now Reform councillor, described his leader's remarks as 'a bit of posturing'. He admitted, though, that his party had work to do to win people over. 'I worry about the people at county hall because they're gonna think: 'What on earth is coming?' We've got to win hearts and minds.' It will take more than warm words to win over some, however. John Shuttleworth, a long-serving independent councillor in Durham, described his new ruling party as 'shocking'. 'They're the wrong people in the wrong job. They've got the ear of the country but they're mainly racist white men of a certain age,' he said. 'We'll be in special measures in about six months.' Additional reporting by Mark Brown, Helen Pidd, Mimi Ibrahim, Raphael Boyd and Hannah Al-Othman
BBC News
21-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Pride and Ukraine flags at Reform-led Durham County Council removed
A council under new control by Reform UK has taken down an LGBTQ+ Pride flag at its move was made on the first day the party officially assumed control of Durham County Council. A Ukrainian flag has also been Democrat councillor Ellie Hopgood condemned the decision and said it was a "disrespectful mean-spirited act" ahead of Saturday's Pride in Armed Forces event in council's deputy leader Darren Grimes, who is gay, defended the decision and said the party was not anti-gay but was "anti-tokenism". Hopgood told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the council should apologise and put the Pride flag back up."It's a petty and mean-spirited act to haul down the Pride flag ahead of Saturday's Pride in Armed Forces event here in Durham."It is disrespectful to the Britons of all sexualities who served in our armed forces and many who gave their lives for their country." The council was previously run as a coalition between the Liberal Democrats, Conservatives and independent whose landmark local election victory saw it secure 65 seats in Durham, officially took control of the local authority earlier, with the party's Andrew Husband elected as council has renamed several key departments to remove references to climate change and equality and said he was proud the council was flying the union jack, flag of St George and the County Durham flag."Together, they represent every Briton, gay or straight, black or white, Christian, Sikh, or otherwise, who has fought, died, and sacrificed under those colours," he said. "Flying our national and local flags is an act of unity. Swapping them out for niche political symbols is just more toxic identity politics." Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
BBC News
15-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
County Durham Reform UK party elect leader as Andrew Husband
A newly elected Reform UK councillor has been selected to be the party's leader in County Durham after it took control of the Husband, member for Chester-le-Street North, was elected by fellow councillors on Wednesday and is expected to be voted in as leader of the council next GB News presenter Darren Grimes, councillor for Annfield Plain and Tanfield, is the party's deputy a Reform candidate at the 2024 General Election, said the people of Durham had given the party a "clear mandate for serious change". Reform UK swept to victory in the 2 May local elections by winning 65 just days later, one of its new councillors, Andrew Kilburn, was forced to resign after he failed to declare he worked for the council, triggering a by-election in party's numbers remain at 65 councillors after Paul Sexton, former independent councillor for Chester-le-Street South, joined Reform earlier this week. 'Proven track record' Husband said it was "an honour and a privilege" to have been elected leader."What we have achieved here is incredible. From a standing start, we now have full control of the council. "The people of Durham have given us a clear mandate for serious change and we fully intend to deliver that."He is expected to be voted in as leader of the local authority at next week's full council meeting before setting out the party's key priorities for the administration, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said. The council was previously run as a coalition between the Liberal Democrats - who are now the second largest party - the Conservatives and independent councillors.A Reform spokesperson said: "Andrew is a business leader with a proven track record of growth in start-ups and building successful teams."Evenwood Reform councillor Robert Potts, who defected from the Conservatives in December, was initially believed to be a front runner for the UK leader Nigel Farage MP recently caused controversy by saying a Reform-led county council would scrap working from home and cut spending on diversity, equity and he admitted local members were aware of the challenges and responsibility ahead. Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
