Farage urges 'patience' over pledge to cut bills

The leader of Reform UK has defended his party's decision to increase council tax by almost the maximum amount in Derbyshire and urged people to be "patient" with the party's efficiency drive.

Nigel Farage was speaking from a petrol station in Newhaven, Derbyshire, where his party was emphasising its focus on cutting bills by urging the government to scrap plans to hike fuel duty.

Reform UK-controlled Derbyshire County Council recently approved a 4.9% council tax rise, having initially proposed a 4.99% increase, the maximum allowed without holding a local referendum.

Labour said the party "won't admit they have broken promises" to cut taxes.

Derbyshire County Council leader Alan Graves told the authority's budget setting meeting that Reform UK had inherited a financial position from the Conservatives that brought the council "perilously close to financial failure".

In response, the Conservatives showed the same meeting Reform UK election literature from the 2025 local elections pledging to "cut your taxes".

"Across all the different councils some have made bigger efficiencies than others", Farage told the BBC.

"But you know, when you go in, you don't know exactly what you're going to inherit. And also cutting things often can't be done overnight.

"So my message to the people of Derbyshire would be, be patient. We've managed it in other counties and we will manage it here."

Farage also denied that the party had explicitly promised to cut council tax bills during last year's local election campaign in Derbyshire.

Most Labour-run councils in Derbyshire have increased council tax by the maximum for the upcoming financial year, although leaders in Erewash have frozen the rate for the first time in several years.

Speaking after the event, a spokesperson for Labour said that "Reform made promises to residents at last year's elections and just won't admit they have broken them.

"Whilst they told the people of Derbyshire they would cut taxes and reduce waste, Reform instead hiked council tax and increased the chief executive's pay – all whilst cutting vital services like care homes and adult education centres," they said.

The leader of the opposition Conservatives on the County Council Alex Dale accused Reform of "empty rhetoric".

"Nigel Farage telling Derbyshire residents to be patient simply won't wash," he said.

"Reform were elected promising to cut your taxes, yet they've pushed through a near-maximum 4.9% council tax rise in Derbyhire, rejecting our fully costed plan for a lower increase. Now local families in Derbyshire are paying the price.

"More broken promises from a party that said one thing to get elected, only to do the complete opposite."

Reform UK pledged to improve efficiency, which they argued would bring down bills in local government via their "DOGE" drive in the councils where they came into power last May, imspired by the Department for Government Efficiency in the US.

Reform UK's central DOGE audit team has not visited Derbyshire and there have been reports elsewhere that efforts have stalled.

The party in Derbyshire chose to add DOGE to the cabinet member for finance's title to emphasise its focus on the issue.

Derbyshire's Reform leaders argue they have already made £35m in planned savings and will implement further savings through streamlining the council's operating model.

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