Nigel Farage tells council staff to find “alternative careers” ahead of EDI and climate change crackdown

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has said council staff working on diversity or climate change initiatives should be “seeking alternative careers” following last week’s local election results.

The right-wing party won 677 council seats and took control of 10 local authorities in last week’s elections as well as winning the mayoral contests for Greater Lincolnshire and Hull and East Yorkshire.

Speaking at a rally in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham last Friday afternoon, Farage said: “I would advise anybody who’s working for Durham County Council on climate change initiatives or Diversity, Equity and Inclusion or thinks you go on working from home – you all better really be seeking alternative careers very, very quickly.

“We want to give council taxpayers better value for money. We want to reduce excessive expenditure. We want to find out who the long-term contracts are signed with and why, and reduce the scale of local government back to what it ought to be.”

Commenting on the remarks, UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said now was the time for local government employees to join a union.

“This is not the US. Thankfully workers in the UK have laws to protect them from bad employers,” she said.  “And soon employees will get even more protection from unscrupulous bosses when the government’s new employment rights come in.

“Reform has consistently voted against these new measures that will make work more secure. So much for being on the side of ordinary working people.

“Rather than attacking hard-working council staff, Mr Farage should be focusing on his own job representing the people of Clacton. But judging by his voting and speaking record in the House of Commons, he’d clearly rather be making big bucks elsewhere.

“Unions are there to ensure no one can play fast and loose with the law. Any staff working for councils now controlled by Reform, and who aren’t yet members, should sign up so they can be protected too.

“Nigel Farage and his party’s new councillors have much to learn about local government. They’ll quickly discover there’s nothing left to cut and many authorities are balancing on the edge of the financial precipice.

“Most local authorities would love to be doing their core work, as Mr Farage says. But they simply don’t have the staff nor the resources to do even that.”