Farage branded ‘confidence trickster’ as political opponents respond to Reform leader’s crticism of Warwickshire County Council

A FEROCIOUS pre-election attack on Warwickshire County Council by Nigel Farage has triggered a savage backlash from his political opponents.

With his eye on the 1st May county council elections, the Reform UK leader has declared Tory-run Warwickshire as “fundamentally and institutionally broken”.

But Cllr Izzi Seccombe (Cons, Stour and the Vale), the leader of the county council, hit back by branding Mr Farage’s attack as a “clip and paste approach” to the elections since it was an “ill-informed round robin letter” sent to all council areas with the names and other details changed to suit the locality to which it was addressed.

Cllr Seccombe declared: “I think this cheap depersonalisation of our vibrant and wonderful county must be exposed.”

And Matt Western, Labour MP for Warwick and Leamington and a former member of the county council, said: “I’m afraid Mr Farage is nothing more than a confidence trickster, as many will remember Boris Johnson was.

“It is worth remembering that he promises to privatise the NHS, wants Jaguar Land Rover to fail and two years ago was happy for Scunthorpe [steel works] to go under.

“As a person who can’t even keep even keep four MPs under control in Parliament, his party promises chaos and mayhem across the country.”

Cllr Jerry Roodhouse (Lib Dem, Eastlands), the leader of the Liberal Democrats at Shire Hall, said: “Reform’s picture of WCC is not one I fully recognise. It is not broken and staff are committed. It shows to me a lack of understanding about how local government operates.”

In his attack on Warwickshire Mr Farage, the MP for Clacton in Essex, said: “Warwickshire County Council, and in fact every council across the country, have been run into the ground by Conservative, Labour and Lib Dem administrations.

“These local authorities, responsible for the day-to-day administration of basic necessities that all of us rely on, are fundamentally and institutionally broken.

“From managing schools to providing social care, emptying bins to filling in potholes, these are services that many of us have probably taken for granted for years. But I’m sure, like me, you’re noticing that things have taken a nosedive.”

Mr Farage added: “Roads look like the surface of the moon, bins overflowing, and schools struggling – whilst your council tax continues to soar. In Warwickshire, council tax has increased by 22 per cent in just five years.

“Local residents from Nuneaton to Stratford-upon-Avon are paying more for less. Put simply: you’re being ripped off.”

He said that Freedom of Information (FOI) requests by Reform UK had revealed findings that “shocked us”.

“Decades of mismanagement, hundreds of millions of pounds of wasted taxpayers’ money, CEOs on salaries magnitudes higher than the British Prime Minister, eye-watering debts spiralling out of control – it’s all there in black and white,” he said.

“Warwickshire County council’s CEO earns £209,000 a year - £42,000 more than the Prime Minister – to oversee this mess.

“Tory maladministration has run up £272 million worth of debt. That’s costing local people more than £31,000 every single day just in interest payments.

“It’s no wonder when the council spent £500,000 on translation services, more than £116,000 on equality staff and £640,000 on furnishing and decorating properties for resettled Afghans.

“Or – try this for size - £20 million in just five years on consultants. The list goes on. And this is all funded by you, the taxpayer.”

In response Cllr Seccombe staunchly defended her party’s record. She said: “At a time of great challenge financially the Conservatives have preserved our libraries, invested in our country parks [and] maintained our highways so we are recognised as the second-best authority in the country.

“We have strived to, and improved, education standards and the buildings that children learn in. We have diversified the offer around adult social care, investing in extra care housing which has provided supported living with your loved ones and reduced costs to our service.”

Cllr Seccombe added: “The day-to-day decisions made by Conservatives have been based on how to use capital funding to help to reduce the demands on revenue – buying homes for children where they can safely be protected, reducing the costs being charged by the private sector, but also providing much better outcomes for children.”

She said: “We have also explored how to use capital to grow our income and reduce the risk of losing services which residents want and need. We have a vibrant stable of business units across the county for small and growing businesses. This supports our county economy, provides great jobs and brings income to the council. They are in high demand.”

Cllr Seccombe went on: “We Conservatives have driven efficiencies throughout the council and have a streamlined workforce. There are occasions when commissioning services is better value for money and reduces pension liabilities.”

Mr Western came at it from a different angle. He said: “Of course, the Conservatives have presided over waste and failure at Warwickshire but, yet again, his [Mr Farage’s] opportunism is blatant. Where was he and what was he saying about Warwickshire two or five years ago? Nothing!

“Some of us have been fighting for a better Warwickshire and greater accountability for many years, holding the leadership to account on issues that have concerned the public for many years.”

He concluded: “Reform will point the finger but fail to roll up their sleeves and get on with the job. Warwickshire deserves better than that.”

In a different twist, Cllr Roodhouse thought that Warwickshire had become “a one-party state” under the Conservatives, but thought that disillusionment with the Labour government might lead to a situation after 1st May where no one party was in overall control.

Whichever way you look at it, Mr Farage’s intervention in local politics has certainly livened up the county council election campaign, which will be the first national test of public opinion since last July’s general election.