Reform Wasting Council Cash

So Reform UK has swaggered into a few town halls, seized control of ten councils, and immediately threatened to take the government to court if asylum seekers are housed in “their” areas. Apparently, they’ve confused winning a few parish bins and pothole budgets with running the Home Office.

Zia Yusuf, Reform’s party chairman, has pledged to resist migrants being housed in local hotels using “every instrument of power available.” That includes judicial reviews, injunctions, and what sounds suspiciously like a game of planning regulation Whac-A-Mole. And when asked about shoving migrants into tents? “That’s what France does,” he said – as though replicating the squalor of Calais is something to aspire to.

Let’s be clear: local councils do not control immigration. They don’t control asylum accommodation. They don’t get a say in who the Home Office contracts with. They can stamp their feet, wave a clipboard, and hire a few lawyers, but the cold truth is that central government calls the shots.

Now, can they technically file for a judicial review? Of course. You can review almost anything – the question is whether it’ll get anywhere. Judicial reviews examine whether a decision was lawful, not whether it upset Reform voters’ delicate sensibilities. Unless the Home Office forgets to follow procedure or acts irrationally – and let’s face it, even that’s a low bar these days – the courts are unlikely to side with a bunch of councillors playing dress-up as cabinet ministers.

And injunctions? Only if they can prove serious, irreparable harm. Not political embarrassment. Not “the locals won’t like it.” Real harm. Good luck.

Yusuf also hinted that their team of lawyers is combing through regulations to catch hotels out on planning loopholes – like suddenly being used as hostels without the right permissions. It’s a cute idea, and they might find the occasional gotcha, but it’s not a strategy – it’s a stalling tactic.

Worse still, all this bluster comes at a cost. Legal challenges aren’t cheap. Reform councillors threatening to take the Home Office to court will be spending local taxpayers’ money chasing national battles they can’t win. Councils are already skint – libraries shutting, care services on their knees, bins collected once every fortnight if you’re lucky. And now, thanks to Reform, some poor council solicitor is going to spend their days drafting injunctions they know will end up in the legal shredder. Bravo.

And let’s not forget the crowning absurdity – their plan to deport “everyone who’s here illegally.” All of them. Every last person. A bold promise, except:

• Many can’t be deported because their home countries won’t take them.
• The UK doesn’t have the planes, staff, detention capacity, or legal muscle to process them en masse.
• And even if it tried, international law – remember that? – would get in the way.
• Refugees are not here "illegally", they just use irregular means to get here.
• It’s not a plan. It’s not even a policy. It’s a pantomime.

Reform knows all this. But they also know that bluster plays well in the Facebook comment sections. That’s the real audience – not the courts, not Parliament, and certainly not the civil servants who’ll be left cleaning up the legal mess.

And while we’re on the subject of delusion, let’s savour the latest gem from Nigel himself – the man who’s barely set foot in a council chamber now talking about creating a UK version of Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” to root out waste. This, from the party now planning to blow local budgets on unwinnable legal fights, flood council inboxes with injunction templates, and hire lawyers to interpret fire regulations in hotel annexes. Reform isn’t here to cut waste – it is the waste. Wrapped in a rosette, shouting into a camera, while someone else picks up the bill. Hypocrisy of the highest order.

But let’s not kid ourselves. This local election wasn’t a national swing. Turnout was abysmal across the board – in some places barely one in four voters bothered. The difference? Reform got their lot out. Angry, aggrieved, and fuelled by social media rage and GBNews talking points. Meanwhile, vast swathes of the country stayed home, shrugging at ballot papers like old takeaway menus. This wasn’t a revolution – it was a well-organised grumble.

So what we’re left with is the spectacle of local politicians wasting local money on national showboating, chasing headlines while the bins pile up and the potholes deepen. At least the damage will be contained within Reform voting areas, as I have predicted many times.

Reform didn’t win a general election. They won a handful of council seats. They’d do well to remember the difference – before they bankrupt the very communities they claim to represent.