{"id":212908,"date":"2025-01-11T10:05:21","date_gmt":"2025-01-11T10:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/11\/nigel-farage-hits-back-at-rogue-branch-after-10-reform-councillors-quit-in-protest-over-autocratic-leadership\/"},"modified":"2025-01-11T10:05:21","modified_gmt":"2025-01-11T10:05:21","slug":"nigel-farage-hits-back-at-rogue-branch-after-10-reform-councillors-quit-in-protest-over-autocratic-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/11\/nigel-farage-hits-back-at-rogue-branch-after-10-reform-councillors-quit-in-protest-over-autocratic-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigel Farage hits back at ‘rogue branch’ after 10 Reform councillors quit in protest over ‘autocratic’ leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Nigel<\/div>


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Nigel Farage has said 10 Reform councillors who quit in protest over his “autocratic” leadership were put forward by a “rogue branch” of the party. <\/p>\n

The Derbyshire group made the announcement after billionaire X owner Elon Musk said Mr Farage<\/strong><\/a> “doesn’t have what it takes”<\/strong><\/a> to lead the party.<\/p>\n

The Clacton MP told Sky News he is still friends with Mr Musk and insisted he “can’t be pushed or bullied”<\/strong><\/a> by anybody.<\/p>\n

The group of councillors said in a statement Reform was being run “in an increasingly autocratic manner” and it had lost its sense of direction.<\/p>\n

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\n Elon Musk said Nigel Farage ‘doesn’t have what it takes’. Pic: PA
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But Mr Farage told BBC Newsnight<\/strong><\/a> that none of the councillors who quit ahead of Reform’s South East of England Conference – one of a series of regional events aimed at building up the party’s support base – had “passed vetting”.<\/p>\n

“We had a rogue branch putting people up and I think you’ll find, in many cases, there will have to be by-elections because they were not legitimately put forward,” he said.<\/p>\n

Read more from Sky News:
UK records coldest January night in 15 years<\/a><\/strong>
Reeves says budget ‘non-negotiable’ on China trip<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The statement from the Amber Valley group criticised Reform’s focus on recruiting former Tory councillors rather than the grassroots.<\/p>\n

“This shift away from the party’s founding principles and values has caused deep concern,” it said.<\/p>\n

Zia Yusuf, the chairman of Reform UK, said on X that the rebel group’s leader Alex Stevenson had been suspended for nominating candidates that failed vetting in December.<\/p>\n

He said many of those who had resigned alongside Mr Stevenson were effectively “illegitimate” and new elections must be held.<\/p>\n

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Mr Stevenson confirmed to Sky News he had been suspended and said it was due to an internal fight within the party.<\/p>\n

The row may cause trouble for Mr Farage as he targets gains in the local elections in May.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nigel Farage has said 10 Reform councillors who quit in protest over his “autocratic” leadership were put forward by a “rogue branch” of the party. The Derbyshire group made the announcement after billionaire X owner Elon Musk said Mr Farage “doesn’t have what it takes” to lead the party. The Clacton MP told Sky News […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/12\/768x432\/skynews-nigel-farage-elon-musk_6786355.jpg?20250103182940","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[23967,11847,21080,23751,367,2122,20164,9724,2634,1793,72346],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212908"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212908"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":212910,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212908\/revisions\/212910"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}