Reform UK leader Nigel Farage predicted his party will soon control councils in Sunderland and Gateshead, ahead of crunch local elections in May
Party leader Nigel Farage pictured at Reform’s local elections campaign national launch at Sunderland Live Arena, Houghton le Spring on 26th March 2026.(Image: Craig Connor/ChronicleLive)
Nigel Farage has confidently predicted another “political earthquake” that will take Reform UK to power in multiple North East councils. Speaking in Sunderland at the national campaign launch for his party’s local election push, Mr Farage called the May 7 polls in Tyne and Wear a “referendum on Keir Starmer and this Labour government”.
The balance of power in the North East could change dramatically in the coming weeks. That is because ‘all out’ elections, in which every council seat is up for grabs instead of the usual one-third, are being held in four Labour-run areas – Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland, and South Tyneside.
After a landslide win in County Durham a year ago and with Reform sat atop the national polls, Mr Farage chose the Sunderland Live Arena in Houghton-le-Spring for the official launch of the party’s campaign and forecast a wave of fresh victories that could “deliver a decisive blow that would mean Starmer is out of office by the end of May”. The Clacton MP told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that the UK was at a “big historic moment of change” with support shifting away from the traditional big parties to Reform and the Greens, who won the recent Gorton and Denton by-election in Greater Manchester.
Mr Farage added: “I genuinely think we can win Sunderland. I pretty strongly think we can win Gateshead. And the others, I don’t know – but we are certainly in the game.”
Opponents have accused Reform of lacking local policies and Paul Donaghy, the party’s former North East mayor candidate, recently told the LDRS that the “last thing we want to do” going into a local election “is put a policy out there and then realise we don’t have the money to do it”.
Mr Farage was similarly reluctant to offer specific policy details for voters going to the polls in Tyne and Wear. Asked what Reform-run councils in the North East would actually deliver, he said on Thursday evening that he was “not going to come up to your part of England, pretend I know all the local issues and be a fraud”.
The former MEP said it would be up to local Reform groups to decide their priorities and went on to say he was “very pleased” that Durham’s Reform leadership had “managed to limit rises in council tax below 2%, below the rate of inflation”. However, Labour and the Conservatives have criticised Reform for increasing council tax in areas it controls despite promising voters that it would cut taxes.
Labour Party chairwoman and Redcar MP Anna Turley said: “Reform’s promises fall apart the moment they take power. They said they would cut taxes and waste, but in council after council they’re hiking council tax and slashing services.”
Nigel Farage on stage with Reform election candidates at the party’s local election campaign launch Sunderland Live Arena, Houghton le Spring on 26th March 2026.(Image: Craig Connor/ChronicleLive)
Deputy Reform leader Richard Tice said on Thursday evening that the party’s 12 councils had saved more than £300 million in the past year and would find another £400 million over the next 12 months, though its claims of savings have been disputed by other parties. Labour leaders across the North East, for example, last year condemned “blatantly false” Reform claims to have delivered a £73 million saving on the controversial Tees Valley Energy Recovery Facility incinerator.
Speaking to the LDRS ahead of taking the stage at the rally on Thursday, Mr Farage told the LDRS: “Clearly the North East has been one of the great Labour fiefdoms and it has been since the end of the First World War. For over a century Labour have dominated local government in the North East and in terms of the MPs they send down to Westminster.