Seven months after Reform UK swept into power at Lancashire County Council in a local election landslide, the party’s first full-scale test of running a major English authority is being marked by internal rows, culture-war gestures and mounting public anger over proposed cuts, including plans to close council-run care homes.
Reform won an outright majority in May, jumping from two seats to 53 on the 84-member council, as Conservative representation collapsed from 46 seats to eight and Labour fell to five. The victory gave Nigel Farage’s party control of the only top-tier council where it holds a clear majority, with Reform figures privately and publicly presenting Lancashire as a “model council” for how the party would govern nationally.
But interviews with councillors, residents and campaigners, alongside council papers and public meetings, suggest a widening gap between Reform’s campaign promises and the financial and legal constraints of county government, which is responsible for major services including adult and children’s social care, highways and special educational needs support.
Stephen Atkinson, a former Conservative who defected to Reform shortly before the election, was installed as council leader on 22 May and quickly warned of the scale of the challenge, citing debt of about £1.2bn on an annual budget of just over £2bn. Reform’s cabinet, which is all male and includes only a small number of councillors with previous county-level experience, has said it must find significant savings while attempting to demonstrate rapid change.
The party campaigned on cutting “bloated salaries”, freezing council tax, fixing “all” potholes and restoring weekly bin collections, though several of those pledges are either outside the county council’s powers or have since been overtaken by budget pressures. Lancashire’s lead member for resources, HR and property, Ged Mirfin, has told councillors the authority faces a multi-year savings requirement of £303m by 2029, with targets of £75m in year one, £95m in year two and £133m in year three.
Mirfin has also indicated that a council tax increase of up to 4.99% may be required, despite Reform’s previous anti-tax rhetoric. A first package of £21.9m of “initial savings” approved by the administration relies heavily on holding vacancies open, reducing agency staff costs, procurement changes and the introduction of AI-based efficiencies, including plans for AI cameras on bin lorries to record potholes.
Reform has also prioritised a series of high-profile symbolic measures. The council voted to play the national anthem before full council meetings and introduced a flag-flying policy limiting routine flags to the Union flag, the flag of England, the Lancashire flag and certain royal or military ensigns, effectively removing Pride and other campaign flags. A “free speech” motion referencing grooming gangs and arguing for open discussion of ethnicity in offending was also passed early in the administration.
The most politically sensitive issue, however, has been adult social care. The council spends about £545m a year on adult social care and is seeking about £50m of savings over 2025–27. In November, the administration launched a consultation on closing five council-run care homes and five day centres, with residents moved to private provision, projecting savings of about £4.16m a year. A final decision is expected in February 2026.
The proposal has prompted protests from families and concern from some Reform supporters. One resident, 92-year-old former nurse Dorothy Devereux at Woodlands, was quoted as saying she would stay “until forcibly removed or in a box”. Phil Price, a Reform member whose mother is in Grove House, said he was a “paid-up member of Reform” but now “disgusted”, and has threatened to quit the party if closures go ahead.
Questions have also been raised about potential conflicts of interest involving Graham Dalton, the cabinet member for adult social care, who co-owns private care firm 1st for Care GB. Dalton has insisted he has “no pecuniary or non-pecuniary interest” in the council’s plans. The council has previously said his company operates in healthcare rather than council-commissioned social care, though critics argue displaced residents could still increase demand for private providers.
Reform’s internal discipline has also been tested. Several councillors and activists have been criticised over inflammatory content, including a social media post shared by councillor Joel Tetlow that featured a Hitler image in a meme about migrants crossing by small boat, which he later removed. Tom Pickup, an activist who edited and shared a misleading clip of Labour councillor Samara Barnes during an equality row, has been suspended after reports that he was part of a WhatsApp group in which “mass Islam genocide” was allegedly advocated.
Opposition parties say the disputes and symbolic motions have distracted from service pressures. Barnes has argued it was wrong for an “all-white male cabinet” to decide inclusion policy, saying “that is not what inclusion is”. Reform councillors deny they are sidelining frontline issues and say the administration was elected to challenge spending priorities and restore civic pride, but the emerging reality in Lancashire is that the party’s promise of disruption is colliding with the hard arithmetic of local government.
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