Reform’s leaflets promised cuts to council tax, but the leader of Lancashire County Council says no such pledge was made
Another Reform council has said it cannot rule out raising council tax by 5%, despite circulating leaflets promising to cut council tax before the local elections.
Stephen Atkinson, the Reform leader of Lancashire County Council, refused to rule out hiking council tax citing the huge strain on social care budgets.
Stephen Atkinson is the leader of Reform-run Lancashire County Council. Credit: LCC
Before the local elections in May this year, Reform distributed leaflets in several local authority areas promising to “cut your taxes”, “freeze council tax” and “reduce the rates”.
Leaflets making similar promises were sent out as recently as the Nottinghamshire by-election on 6 November.
Speaking to the FT, councillor Atkinson refuted the claim that Nigel Farage’s party had pledged to cut council tax.
“We never said that,” he replied, referring to the central office. “I can’t rule out an increase.”
The FT pressed Atkinson about the local election leaflets. But Atkinson insisted none of Reform UK’s “official” party leaflets promised to cut council tax.
“That [promise] is not sanctioned from head office,” he said. “The head office were very clear that they didn’t put that in. So if someone’s gone rogue . . . that’s not the national party’s position.”
In a recent interview with Blog Preston, Atkinson said: “What I feel many non-Reform councils will do is ask for increases above the 4.99 percent that is the standard cap. We are trying to avoid a 4.99% increase, but we don’t know where we are with that just yet.”
Even with a 5% council tax rise, Lancashire County Council officials estimate that £75 million in savings will need to be found to balance the books.
This isn’t the first time Reform has faced questions over its council tax pledges.
In a Times interview last month, Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice said that a Times headline which said that Reform promised to bring council tax down is “simply untrue” and “has to be corrected”.
The Times Radio journalist, Stig Abell, pointed out that the headline wasn’t “untruth” and referred to several leaflets in which Reform had pledged to cut taxes.
Abell said: “The Times quotes the leaflets, the Warwickshire Reform Party leaflet said ‘we will cut your taxes’. The Worcestershire Party leaflet said ‘We will reduce waste and cut your taxes’.”
Tice tried to deflect the claims, saying the party leadership never pledged council tax cuts, despite what the local election leaflets stated.
Maybe it’s time the leadership investigates these so-called “rogue” leaflets to ensure Reform candidates aren’t promising something that the party doesn’t intend to deliver.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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