An extraordinary advert appeared in the Metro yesterday.
Reform needs candidates for the council elections and they're inviting you to stand. Yes you. Get your name on the ballot paper, hope that people vote for you and you could be running a London council in two months time.
It's perhaps not a surprise. Reform weren't a significant presence at the last London council elections in 2022, winning just 0.2% of the vote and zero seats. They'd only rebranded from the Brexit Party the previous year, Nigel Farage had stepped away and zero momentum had built up. So with no existing base to build on a heck of a lot of candidates need to be found for 2026, and it seems they've not got their full complement yet.
Data check 2022 Number of wards contested: 32 out of 679 (5%) Number of wards where candidates got more than 100 votes: 16
Data check 2026 Number of wards to be contested: 679 Number of candidates needed: 1817 Number of councils up for grabs: 32
The traditional main parties have existing roots in all the boroughs, even the Greens, so have a firm base from which to select sufficient local candidates. They'll have been planning their shortlist for a while (would you do it Jess? Is it Ishtar's turn? the results of the ballot are Dan, Karima and Nat) so are unlikely to be caught out with a blank space on the ballot paper. But Reform aren't organised locally, it's a more top down thing, hence finding hundreds of ward-specific candidates is a proper challenge.
And not a new one. Richard Tice launched a national campaign six months ago to find local election candidates, at which point they needed 215 in Greater Manchester and 105 in Lancashire. I can't find a specific number for London but if they're now taking out adverts asking for candidates it must still be quite a few. And time is running out.
Local election timeline
• Publication of notice of election: Monday 30 March
• Deadline for submission of nomination papers: Thursday 9 April
• Publication of statement of persons nominated: Friday 10 April
• Polling day: Thursday 7 May
Specifically all the candidates have to be nominated by 9th April, which is 23 days away, i.e, Reform have just over three weeks to fill potentially hundreds of gaps. How badly wrong could that go?
There are loads of people out there who'd make excellent local councillors. Opinionated, conscientious, dedicated, fair and willing to step up to make life better for those who live around them. But there are also people out there who'd make appalling local councillors, not because you disagree with their policies but because their character is fundamentally flawed. They might be lazy, untrustworthy, clueless, toxic, fraudulent, even criminal... and a three week vetting process is never going to be able to weed out all the worst candidates.
Reform do have form in appointing people whose past behaviour catches up with them or who've said things not even their leader can condone. Two of their five MPs elected in 2024 had to be suspended from the party the following year, and several county councillors successful in 2025 have already fallen on their swords. The party's often been willing to champion the unorthodox, but this it seems can come with a greater than normal risk of impropriety. What are the chances of rooting out all the bad apples in three weeks flat, especially when that's based on a self-selecting online process?
And this matters because Reform are going to storm to victory in multiple electoral wards, all the polls suggest it. Even though London overall is one of the least Reform-oriented parts of the country there are still lots of places, especially in outer London, where whoever wears the turquoise rosette is nigh guaranteed a win.
Wards that alreadyhave a Reform councillor Barnet: Hendon Bromley: Bickley & Sundridge, Bromley Common & Holwood†, Farnborough & Crofton Havering: Rush Green & Crowlands, Squirrels Heath (2) Waltham Forest: Hatch Lane & Highams Park North (3) Westminster: Abbey Road, Lancaster Gate
† by-election (the rest were defections)
Constituencies where Reform came2nd in the 2024 parliamentary elections
• Barking
• Dagenham & Rainham
• Erith & Thamesmead
I'd expect Bexley, Havering and Barking & Dagenham to have the greatest chance of electing a lot of Reform councillors, even potentially falling to turquoise control. They were also the only boroughs with a Leave vote above 60% in the 2016 referendum, so they have past form. Elsewhere it's the Greens who might hoover up votes from those disillusioned by recent governments, but the further you head into ULEZ fury territory the more likely it is the protest vote goes to Reform. Which means a lot of people who currently have zero experience of the nitty gritty of local politics could find themselves in charge of bins and parking in two months time.
It's not clear whether this Centre of Excellence is a collegiate gathering, an online course, a helpline number or an AI bot offering advice. But Reform are more than willing to train new councillors at breakneck speed, also while they're on the job, because their candidates have insufficient experience in place up front. And yes, thousands of elected officials are thrown in at the deep end every time there's any kind of election anywhere, but normally there are old hands amongst their colleagues plus specific local support to back them up. Nothing about Reform's Centre of Excellence suggests a local approach based on local issues.
As an indication of how successful Reform are about to be, check the slogan at the foot of the advert... REFORM WILL FIX IT.
That's a cracking slogan, genius in its confident ambiguity. It's never specified what IT is, but a dissatisfied voter will supply the issue of their choice and see what they want to see. Potholes fixed? Excellent. Parking restrictions fixed? About time. Wokery fixed? Perfect. People who don't look like you fixed? Good riddance. It appeals in particular to the voter who simply wants 'anything but this', i.e. an immediate switch of direction, which is generally how most changes of government are instigated.
I considered applying to become a Reform candidate myself and started working my way through the online process. Alas it seems you have to be a party member, and even when I pretended I was the application then stalled when it refused to accept my telephone number. But you might have more luck, and if successful may discover there are hundreds of voters in your ward willing to vote for an inexperienced unknown with questionable opinions simply because they're not the incumbent. If you don't apply, some really dubious people are likely to get voted in instead, and all because Reform failed to plan sufficiently in advance.
