Nigel Farage has acknowledged that voters on the Isle of Wight will ultimately decide whether Reform UK has the experience needed to run County Hall when Islanders head to the polls in May.
During a sit-down with Island Echo ahead of the Reform rally in Newport on Monday, Farage was asked whether the Island was ‘for the taking’ as the party looks to make gains in the local elections on 7th May.
Although he declined to make a firm prediction, Nigel pointed to polling that he says shows the party performing strongly across the wider region.
He said:
“I don’t know, but what I do know from the national polling is that South Hampshire and the Island, which are kind of looked at together for obvious reasons, we are very, very strong.”
Nigel suggested his visit had already generated interest locally, saying people had approached him during the day to wish him luck ahead of the evening rally.
Despite that confidence, Farage acknowledged that one of the key questions voters may ask is whether Reform has enough local experience among its candidates to run the authority effectively.
He said:
“I think the biggest challenge that we face is that we’re still relatively new.
“Do we have the depth of experience of Island affairs within that group of candidates?”
The Reform leader said the party is currently building its list of candidates ahead of the local elections and that voters will be able to judge the strength of those candidates when they are formally announced.
He said:
“You’ll see all that in a few weeks’ time when the candidates are announced and they form their own local manifesto.”
Farage also suggested that while council elections focus heavily on local issues, national politics often still plays a role in influencing voters’ decisions…
“Even though these are local elections, you can never get away from the fact that national politics has an influence.”
Islanders will head to the polls on 7th May to elect a new Isle of Wight Council, with Reform expected to field candidates in all 39 wards.
Why would you vote for a party of political failures and has beens that is already waning in popularity?
What the Labour Party??
You would be surprised, look how many numpties
on the island voted Brexit even though they never knew
what they were actually voting for.
THEY THOUGHT LESS MIGRANTS WOULD ENTER THE COUNTRY
Look how wrong they were!
Once a Numpty always a Numpty!
If you have a brain you will vote REFORM
Fortunately those with brains won’t. Reform is the party of the uneducated.
Numpties vote Reform
Why? You comment isn’t full of compelling reasons. Reform will not look after ordinary people. If you can afford to pay for all your health care – all of it, every doctos appointment, the drugs on every prescription at actual cost, surgery, nursing etc then fine. If you can’t, what will you do when you or one of your kids is sick?
Gawd help the island if these clowns take control.
Nigel is a good talker I give him that, but talk
is not action.
The Island’s economy, along with the rest of the country is doomed anyway with this lot of incompetent idiots in power.
You’re criticising a party that hasn’t even run the council yet and calling them clowns before voters have had their say. That says more about your bias than it does about them.
“Voters will judge if reform has the experience”, look at labour the perennial party of opposition, what experience do they have other than to drive the economy into the ground, conservatives, a whole football team of short term prime ministers who should never have been let out on their own and lame democrats, they are never sure what they are for from one week to another , so experience counts for nothing.
Reform are The Tory reject party.
Reform would do a fantastic job on the Wight, there’s no beginning to their talents!